Portugal leads in the growth of food deliveries at home
With the pandemic, the change delivery business gains new buyers all over the world. But Portugal leads this growth. The data are from a study by Kantar consultant and show that the penetration rate of services meal delivery growth, in Portugal, of more than 28% in the first half of the year.
According to the Kantar study, which analyzed consumer habits in ten countries from various geographies, it was in European markets that the food delivery business advanced the most, compared to the same period of the previous year, from 44 to 51% in Spain, from 50 to 60% in the UK and from 54 to 64% in France. In Portugal, the growth was 16 percentage points, going from 57 to 73%. More importantly, 44% of the growth seen in Portugal was in the so-called heavy buyers, that is, customers who order meals one or more times a week.
Asia and South America are the regions where this reality already has a higher penetration, so growth has naturally been more moderate. South Korea is, of the ten countries studied, the one in which the most consumers use these services, with a rate of 99%, with no change compared to the first half of 2020. Mainland China follows, which went from 84% to 91% and Thailand and Brazil, both with 88%. But the growth was not the same in both: in Thailand there was an increase of 10 percentage points, in Brazil it was only eight percentage points. Indonesia was the country in which the evolution was lower: it rose one percentage point to 68%.
These are data that are part of the context study of the consumer goods market (FMCG, in English), requested by Centromarca to Kantar. For the general director of the Portuguese Association of Branded Products Companies, “the Portuguese have become accustomed to having a more diversified offer, with the use of meal delivery applications, and these figures show that this is a reality that has gained traction with the pandemic and which maintained some continuity, even with the return of the Portuguese to offices and face-to-face work”.
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For brands, this represents an opportunity to recoup a share of the catering market’s loss. “Of course, when I buy a meal to eat at home or at the office or stop buying things at the supermarket to cook at home or stop eating at the restaurant. Basically, for brands, a door closes but a door opens. window, and what is not sold on one side starts to be sold on the other”, in particular Pedro Pimentel.
The study, entitled “Where to the new normal?”, concludes that the Portuguese purchasing pattern is increasingly closer to the pre-pandemic period. Proof of this is the fact that the number of shopping trips has increased again, with the volume in each of the trips. Each trip to the supermarket, in the third quarter of 2019, represented, on average, a basket with 10.2 volumes, against 11.3 in 2020. This year, we returned to 10.5. The average expense per basket is 22 euros, two euros above 2019 and only one below 2020: “You are beginning to see that there is already some price information”, says Pedro Pimentel. Globally, the FMCG market is falling 2.2% in value and 4.8% in volume compared to 2020, a year of heavy spending in supermarkets, because of the impact of the pandemic, but it is growing 11, 8% in value and 4.8% in volume compared to 2019.
And it is the hygiene and beauty items and the home cleaning items that are the most affected, with drops of 11.2% and 6.5%, respectively, facing 2020. “We continue to feel that all that are products associated with a life abroad, whether women’s cosmetics or sunscreens, etc., are in decline. We must also not forget that there is still an interesting fringe of people who still resort to telecommuting, “says Pedro Pimentel. As for home cleaning, it is clear that, in 2020, Portuguese families made a huge investment in home disinfection, something that slowed down with the evolution of vaccination and greater knowledge about covid-19.
Manufacturers’ brands continue to represent the largest share of purchases by the Portuguese, but continue to lose weight; on the other hand, as distribution brands, such as white brands, corresponding to 38.4% of the supermarket bill, against 36% in 2019. In terms of quantity, the reality is different: in the main categories of consumer goods, such as brands white companies already have a 56% share.
These data show that the price “continues to be an important factor for the Portuguese when buying a product”, concludes Kantar, in the study. But for Pedro Pimentel, part of this also has to do with “a certain shift from consumers to chains of hard discount [Aldi, Lidl e Mercadona], not necessarily because they are cheaper, but because they created empathy with consumers, the way they communicated, and also because many of them are proximity stores. “This responsible also recalls that Portugal” is the country in Europe where the difference in prices between distribution brands and suppliers are higher, “and this reality is a challenge for manufacturers,” who have both their customer and their competitor in large-scale distribution.
As for the various consumption channels, the Kantar study shows that the FMCG market in Portugal “continues its readjustment trajectory”. In other words, hypers and supermarkets are losing ground, with a share of 66.1%, down from 67.5% in 2019, while retail stores hard discount growing, with a share of 17.1%, above the 16.7% of the pre-pandemic period, as well as traditional commerce, which is already worth 8.5% of the market, against 8.2% in 2019. But it is the fastest growing online, from 2.2 to 3.3%. Furthermore, it is the only segment that grows compared to 2020.
In addition, the study shows that, when shopping online, consumers seem to prefer manufacturers’ brands, not being as sensitive to the effect of white brands. Simplicity, speed and information are the factors that lead consumers to repeat the online experience, technical in the study, realizing that manufacturer brands “may be the lever for the growth of this channel.
For Kantar, manufacturers should seek to “take the best advantage” of e-commerce, developing “exclusive products for online, savings formats and exclusive promotions aligned with offline to encourage purchases”.
The director-general of Centromarca agrees: “online is an additional opportunity for brands, who do not have the challenge of display on the shelf here, as they do in stores”.