Buymie survey reveals nearly 1 in 3 shoppers plan on buying Christmas groceries online

New research commissioned by buymie, Ireland’s leading same-day grocery delivery provider, reveals nearly 30% (29.4%) of Christmas shoppers this year plan to buy groceries online while avoiding some of the biggest pet peeves of the holidays.

However, shoppers who plan on grocery shopping online last minute will be in for a shock with delivery slots from popular retailers already filling up since the end of November. Only one-quarter (26.5%) of Irish shoppers plan to do the Christmas grocery more than a week in advance.

The team at buymie are seeing demand for the service lift in the week of the new restrictions due to the omicron variant. Devan Hughes, CEO and co-founder of buymie said, “We are actively putting more hours on the network and allowing advanced bookings for the first time, to try and do the best we can to support the Irish public to get their grocery shopping delivered this festive season.”

44% of all adults believe that the worst thing about grocery shopping for Christmas is the long checkout queues. This view is shared by nearly half of Irish Men (49.7%) compared to 39.1% of women. Gen Zs adults are also highly offended by a queue with two-thirds (66%) claiming that long checkout queues are the worst.

A quarter (24%) of shoppers think the worst part is how busy the store is while 19% feel the worst part is the sold-out items and finding substitutes. This view is particularly shared among women and millennials who likely couldn’t get a key ingredient over the years (23.5 % women vs 14.9 % Men &  28.3% of 25-34 years olds)

While 13% of shoppers think the traffic to and from the shops is the worst part of Christmas grocery shopping (16.1 % Men vs 9.8 % Women).

buymie’s personal grocery shopping service has now been used and trusted by 1 in 8 Dublin households. Through buymie’s innovative real-time order bundling algorithm, this year alone the company has saved customers over 100,000 trips to the shops and with it 26 tonnes of Co2 by reducing the number of individual consumer car trips for groceries.

Would you pay someone to do your Christmas grocery shopping?

According to the survey respondents, on average, they would pay someone €16 for them to do the big Christmas grocery shop so that they could avoid queues, busy shops and traffic.

Interestingly, 1 in 10 of the male respondents (10.9 %) would pay someone over €50 to take the Christmas shop off their hands.

Looking at GenZ who have grown up with the gig economy, they value the service more than any other age group. Gen Z would pay someone to do their grocery shop, on average, €18. That’s compared to the 55+ age range who would only pay €12.

In stark contrast to other age groups, the 18-24 age range also stated 69.8 % would be buying Christmas groceries online this year, this is over double the nearest age range 25-34 at 32.1%.

Hughes added, “We are not very surprised by the Gen Z results. We can see the demand building for online grocery shopping – that is especially coming from the younger generations who have grown up with on-demand services from films to take-aways. ”

Christmas dinner – What’s not to love?

The majority of respondents (62%) find that cleaning up afterwards is their least favourite part of Christmas dinner. This is highest among 18-24 years old with 71.7% who are probably suckered with the dishes.

Nearly one in five (17%) dislike grocery shopping for the Christmas food the most, especially men (21% men vs 13% women). While 12% reckon cracker jokes is their least favourite part.

Overall, 9% consider cooking the dinner is the least favourite part, especially women (11.7% Women vs 6.3% men).

To access the personal grocery shopping service, users can download the buymie app from the Apple iOS app store, or from the Google Play store onto a mobile device. Once registered, customers can select to shop for groceries within the Dunnes, Lidl or Tesco online grocery store. buymie customers have no limitation on basket size and access to the very best of Dunnes Stores,  Lidl and Tescos’ product range. A personal shopper is then appointed, allowing for seamless communication during the shopping process, and ensuring the best substitutions and highest quality fresh produce are selected.

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