The lasting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on consumer behaviour can still been seen as shopping habits have not fully returned to pre-pandemic norms, and shopping trips remain lower than before, new research from Kantar shows today.
Kantar noted that households made fewer visits - down by nearly two - to supermarkets in February 2025 than in 2020.
The trend for online shopping appears to have stuck as well, with the online channel taking a record 6.9% market share in February compared to 2.7% in the same month in 2020, Kantar added.
Today's figures also show that the value of take-home grocery sales increased by 4.9% in Ireland over the four weeks to 23 February compared to the same period last year.
Grocery inflation rose by 0.3 percentage points and now stands at 3.7% compared to the same 12-week period last year, following recent periods of stability.
Kantar noted that growing supermarket loyalty schemes that offer exclusive discounts as playing a key role in attracting shoppers.
"Retailers continue to roll out discounts, as a way of easing the pressure on household budgets - and Irish consumers are more than happy to take advantage of them," Emer Healy, Business Development Director at Kantar, said.
She said that spending on promotion rose by 11.6% with shoppers spending an additional €92m on last year.
Promotions now account for 23.9% of all sales going through the tills.
Representing 45% of all grocery value sales, own label products remain popular with sales jumping 3.8% compared to last year as shoppers spent an additional €62.6m on these ranges. Brands performed slightly ahead of the total grocery market growing by 5.6% compared to last year, Kantar said.
Kantar said that February was a busy month for consumers who celebrated both a bank holiday weekend and Valentine's Day. Shoppers spent an additional €14.4m on chocolate and sweets and €4.2m on wine as many celebrated at home.
It noted that a box of chocolates continues to be the present of choice with sales jumping by 6.9% in February.
Shoppers also prepared for pancake day, stocking up on sweet spreads and spending an additional €1.3m from January.
Meanwhile, Dunnes continues to hold the biggest market share of the supermarkets, with a 24.6% share, as its sales grew by 6.9% year-on-year. Dunnes' new shoppers and as existing shoppers picked up more per trip contributed a combined €18.2m to its overall performance.
Tesco holds 23.9% of the market, with value growth of 6.5% year-on-year. New shoppers and increased trips to store contributed a combined €27.1m to its overall performance.
Meanwhile SuperValu holds 20.4% of the market with growth of 4.5% and consumers made the most shopping trips to this grocer, averaging 23.7 trips over the latest 12 weeks. The increase in the number of trips contributed an additional €41m to its performance.
Lidl holds a 12.8% market share, up 4.6%. New shoppers drove an additional €4.2m in sales, while Aldi holds a 10.9% market share, up 4.7%, while more trips in- store drove an additional €9.5m in sales.
