A new study from Roy Morgan Research has revealed that most Australian shoppers are not loyal to one supermarket.

 

Research found that three-quarters or 77 per cent of Australian shoppers visit at least two supermarkets over any-given four week period.

 

IGA shoppers are the most loyal with 30 per cent of people who mainly shop at IGA, only shopping at IGA across any four weeks.

 

Those who mostly shop at Aldi are the least loyal with only 7 per cent exclusively purchasing from the chain.

 

Woolworths shoppers are more loyal than Coles with 25 per cent remaining loyal, 24 per cent of Coles customers are committed to the chain only.

 

 

Supermarket mainly shopped at and number of supermarkets visited in last 4 weeks

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), April 2014 – March 2015 (n=12,828). Base: Australian grocery buyers 14+

 

When asked how many major supermarkets consumers visited over the last four weeks, 37 per cent had gone to two, 28% said three and 7% said they shopped at all four.

 

Woolworths, Coles and IGA shoppers are most likely to visit two chains whilst 47 per cent of Aldi shoppers are likely to visit three of the major chains within the space of four weeks.

 

People who shop at Aldi are actually more likely to visit all four major supermarkets in that time than shop at Aldi alone.

 

Andrew Price, General Manager of Consumer Products at Roy Morgan Research says that the latest data reflects a highly competitive supermarket scene in Australia.  

 

“As our data has confirmed many times and in many different ways, Australia’s supermarket scene is incredibly competitive — and these latest findings throw another challenge into the mix,” said Price.

 

“While most grocery-buyers have a supermarket they mainly shop at, a relatively low proportion of them shop exclusively at that supermarket. They do not seem to have any great sense of loyalty to their main chain.”

 

“Woolworths/Safeway and Coles customers are quite similar in their shopping habits: they are more likely to shop at two – or even three – of the main chains in an average four weeks than return to their primary supermarket every time. People who mainly shop at IGA are also more likely to visit two supermarkets in any given four weeks, but less likely to visit three,” Price said.

 

“These results suggest that customer loyalty programs such as FlyBuys (held by more than half of Coles shoppers) and Everyday Rewards (held by more than 60% of Woolworths/Safeway customers) are not achieving the desired result.”

 

“Meanwhile, the fact that so few ALDI customers shop exclusively at ALDI is not so surprising: while the German chain offers low prices and a popular home-brand range, it does not have such a huge variety of products as the other major supermarkets. As a result, it’s almost inevitable that ALDI shoppers will need to visit other chains during the month to complete their grocery shop,” Price concluded.

 

Other relevant articles

 

Aldi opens up more on its Australian expansion plans  

 

Aldi opens up on its fantastic profits, without fantasy on tax 

 

Metcash suffers from competitive retail market