New figures show online grocery market sales grew by over 125% during the 12 weeks to August 9th.

This gives online sales a market share of 4.6% of total sales this period - contributing an additional €75.1m.

The latest overall figures from Kantar show that take-home grocery sales growth in Ireland slowed to 18.0% year-on-year during the 12 weeks.

While still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels, grocery spend of €930m over the latest four weeks was the lowest since February as the country eases out of lockdown.

Emer Healy, retail analyst at Kantar, said: "With restrictions on movement and eating out lifting, grocery spend is climbing down from the record-breaking heights we saw in previous months.

"A year-on-year comparison shows that shoppers still visited stores four fewer times over the 12 weeks, but trends are less stark than they were at the peak of lockdown."

While the relaxing of rules across much of Ireland means shoppers are less inclined to favour large, infrequent shops.

People spent approximately €5 less per trip over the past four weeks compared with April, picking up fewer items.

**Includes stores such as M&S, Boots, Spar, Centra, Greengrocers, Butchers and Cross Border shops. Source: Kantar

Among a push for staycations, the wet and rainy weather did not dampen spirits - and sales of firelighters and logs were boosted by 77% over the latest four weeks.

Hotel breakfasts were swapped for homemade alternatives: eggs, bacon and sausages all grew ahead of the market in the same period.

Alcohol sales are up by 56% over the past 12 weeks, but this represents a significant slowdown from the 76% growth rate seen last month.

All of Ireland’s traditional retailers registered growth over the latest 12 weeks.

Buoyed by online offers, SuperValu continues to hold the highest market share at 22.3% and Tesco took second place at 21.1%.

SuperValu remains the only retailer to attract new shoppers this period, contributing an additional €624,000 to its growth.

It was a similar story for Dunnes - the retailer again recorded the highest average spend per trip, while also seeing an increase in volumes and higher average prices, to hold a 20.5% market share.

Aldi recorded strong growth of 18.4% this month.

Meanwhile it has been a busy few weeks for Lidl, which launched its rewards scheme 'Lidl Plus', and achieved the strongest growth rate of all the major retailers this period, with a market share of 12.8%.

Main image by Kevin Campbell from Pixabay