Online grocery shopping penetration in the Netherlands 2018-2019, by supermarket

Albert Heijn was the Netherlands’ most-used source for online grocery shopping in 2019, according to survey results right before the coronavirus pandemic. Of respondents who said they bought their groceries through an online shop, about half of them had ordered them from this online store. This is not a coincidence, as Albert Heijn is the country's largest (offline) supermarket chain. Although Jumbo was the second-largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, it only stood in third place for online grocery shopping. Indeed, the second most used online supermarket was Picnic, a supermarket from Amsterdam which received an investment of 100 million euros in 2017.

The impact of COVID-19

Did self-isolation lead to an increase in online grocery shopping in the Netherlands? During the confinement, the penetration rate of online grocery shopping increased significantly. Indeed, although online grocery shopping was already a practice gaining in popularity over the last four years, in April 2020, the use of online grocery shopping rose by six percent. Although six out of ten respondents of a study stated that the coronavirus had not changed their purchase behavior, 17 percent of online grocery buyers stated to buy in larger quantities. Consequently, the percentage of total Dutch supermarket revenue generated through online sales increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. In other words, during the self-isolation period, online supermarkets saw both an increase of customers and purchases.

Deliverance, or how some online supermarkets became too popular

Albert Heijn, Jumbo, and Picnic have been the three biggest Dutch online supermarkets for several years. This was still the case in 2019. The combined market share of these three online stores, however, decreased significantly between 2018 and 2019 in favor of smaller online supermarkets. Plus is said to be the online supermarket which gained the most market share, although the likes of Coop, Spar, and Deen also increased. This increased popularity of smaller online supermarkets was allegedly from the limited availability of delivery slots among the bigger players. Albert Heijn, Jumbo, and Picnic were so popular that all time slots when groceries could be delivered were booked, and some consumers switched to other, less popular providers. Home delivery is the most popular delivery method for online grocery shopping among the Dutch.