Supermarkets are gradually boosting their UK online retail market share.The leading 45 supermarket operated websites have accounted for 6.6 per cent of all UK Internet visits to Shopping & Classifieds websites in the first week of December 2007, up from 4.4% for the same week a couple of years ago. This figure is expected to increase as we enter the peak period for supermarkets in the run up to Christmas.

One of the major drivers of UK supermarkets’ online growth has been the rising proportion of non-food articles. In fact, not a single of the top 10 product search terms resulting in increased traffic to the Supermarkets custom category over the last month were food related. For record, nine of the top 10 product searches were for electrical or entertainment products.

The popular search items comprise laptops, music downloads’ and LCD televisions
Curiously, their offline growth is being largely fuelled by non-food sales. This is often achieved by setting up specific micro sites to gain market share in a niche market. For e.g., Tesco Direct enjoys around 6 per cent share of the Shopping & Classifieds – Dept. Stores category since being launched in September 2006 whereas Asda Electricals doubled its share of the Shopping & Classifieds (Appliances and Electronics category) (1.8 per cent as compared to 1.0 per cent last year).
There is no doubt over the fact that supermarkets are gaining ground on the online turf.