Online food & personal care in Europe worth €56bn by 2022

Sales of food and personal care are going well in European ecommerce and are set to increase by 54 percent in the next years. This means the online food and personal care industry will be worth over 56 billion euros by 2022.

This is one of the major conclusions from ‘Winning Ahead Online E-Commerce in FMCG’ [pdf], a study by IRI. Though supermarkets still dominate in Europe, the online food and personal care sales are forecast to increase significantly in the next few years.

‘Online sales are booming in Europe’

“Despite the fact that the online market share of fast moving consumer goods is still low compared to other sectors, online sales are booming in Europe, with double-digit growth in Italy (+42 percent) and Spain (+29 percent) and dynamic performances in France and Germany”, Pierluigi Carlini of IRI comments.

The sales of food and personal care in particular are performing very well in ecommerce. This industry is set to grow 54 percent in the next years, IRI predicts. “The FMCG market is ripe for further disruption online, with new partnerships forming and new distribution opportunities emerging.”

Online FMCG sales in Italy to exceed €400 million in 2018

In Italy, the FMCG online channel sales are set to exceed 400 million euros. The company only had data available for the period of January and September, but based on estimated value sales for the last three months, the industry could be worth 434 million at the end of the year. This would mean an increase of 42 percent.

Traditional grocers evolve their online offerings

In the report, IRI reflects on traditional grocers that continue to evolve their online offerings. For example, Carrefour evolved its click-and-collect service and now offers pedestrian pick-ups in Paris. And Monoprix is one of Europe’s latest grocers to join forces with Amazon and list thousands of their private label products via Amazon Prime. And in the Netherlands, Albert Heijn and Edeka are partnering to offer smart lock technology in conjunction with online home delivery, so shoppers can accept deliveries to their fridge while they are out of home.