People have spent more on-line

What this image shows

The percentages of people shopping on-line for groceries has decreased slightly from marginally over a quarter to marginally under a quarter. Our further work shows however that those who shop on-line for groceries are now doing so more often. The shift for non-food to 36.4% of our sample is reflective of a national trend which has seen just over a third of all non-food and non-fuel sales by value going on-line, up from 19%.

Why is this important?

The shift to on-line reinforces previous trends and, whilst we can expect some physical shopping to return, the changes have already accelerated changes to the high street with the folding of high street brands such as Debenhams and Top Shop.

The additional warehousing and distribution facilities which have been brought on-stream will continue to drive on-line uptake. This has important implications for the balance of activities in our city centres and the attractiveness of ‘big-box’ edge of town centres. There are opportunities to re-purpose some developments and to reduce parking provision for new uses.