Grocery price inflation increased to 6.3% for the latest 12-week period, up from 5.4% in the previous 12 weeks, according to Worldpanel by Numerator.

This is based on over 30,000 identical products compared year on year in the proportions purchased by Irish shoppers and Worldpanel by Numerator claims this represents the most authoritative figure currently available.

Back-to-school spending has been identified as a driver of take-home grocery sales, which increased by €68.8m in the four weeks to 7 September compared with the same period last year.

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Spending on promotional lines in supermarkets also increased, up 8.2% compared with last year to €758m and promotions now account for 21.5% of all grocery sales.

Market share

Online sales increased by 6.3% year on year, now accounting for 5.8% of the total sales value and almost 18% of all households’ bought groceries online during this period.

Dunnes retains top spot for grocery sales among supermarkets with 23.9% of market share, just ahead of Tesco which has 23.7% of the grocery market.

Supervalu remains in third place with 19.5% of the grocery market and it also attracted the most shopper visits at an average of 24.7 trips per shopper over the 12-week period.

Lidl continues to strengthen its place in the market and has now grown to 14.2% of the market, with growth of 9.5%, the fastest growth among all retailers.

Lidl also saw shoppers pick up more volume in store, up 2.5%, contributing an additional €11.5m to overall performance.

Aldi has 11.6% of the market, an increase of 4.7%.