Food and Drink E-Commerce in Spain

PROSPECTS

Demand for food and drink e-commerce mainly driven by younger urban consumers

While food and drink e-commerce continued to record strong current value sales in 2019, its performance was still not as impressive as experienced by many non-grocery categories such as consumer electronics and media products, as many Spaniards remained reluctant to purchase groceries through this channel. There is a strong preference and habit amongst older generations of local consumers in particular, to visit a physical grocery retailer to choose their own products, as this allows them to assess the quality in addition to enjoying the overall experience of being able to browse the variety of fresh produce.

Online marketplaces offer grocery retailers a platform on which to sell their products

Online marketplaces present an option for stronger growth for large grocery retailers in Spain. In terms of food sales, the presence of big distribution companies is expanding within marketplace platforms, encouraging grocery retailer Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentación (Dia) to come to an agreement with Amazon to include its store La Plaza de Dia on its online marketplace.

Swift and convenient delivery options important competitive aspect in food and drink e-commerce

With convenience being one of the primary factors in a consumer’s decision to order food and drink through e-commerce, competitive delivery times are therefore extremely important, encouraging retailers and distributors to focus on improving their logistics to address this demand. Some marketplace platforms such as DelSuper or Deliberry offer the larger grocery retailers logistics services for their online orders.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Mercadona invests in distribution centre for online orders to ease logistics through grocery stores

Leading grocery retailer Mercadona also held the highest value share of food and drink sales through e-commerce in Spain in 2019. To a large extent, its performance is not related to the user friendliness of its online platform or its mobile app, but rather its strength tied to its logistics operation, in addition to increasing its delivery period from 07.

Partnering marketplaces or delivery services reduces need for heavy investment for grocery retailers

For grocery retailers that have yet to invest in their own logistics solutions or distribution centres, partnering a delivery service or online platform offers a way to expand their food and drink e-commerce service without heavy investment. This has led to a number of collaborations towards the end of the review period, including Lidl and online supermarket Lola Market which tested the validity of offering Lidl’s groceries through the latter’s e-commerce platform in 2019 in central Madrid, with the aim of extending this service in the future if it proves successful.

Caprabo focuses on supporting local producers with online orders concentrating on Catalonia region

Modern grocery retailer Caprabo from Grupo Eroski offers consumers located in the Catalonia region the opportunity to place online orders, with a small but healthy percentage of its grocery sales stemming from this channel under its online supermarket Capraboacasa. The retailer’s main concept is to support local producers with a focus on proximity which allows it to reduce its ecological footprint.

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