The food and grocery market will be worth £170bn in the next five years, thanks partly to online and discount grocers, according to a new report.
Every year until 2013, the market will grow 4% per year, with the value of online grocery retailing alone due to hit £6.2bn, IGD said.
The figures come as the TNS-TalkingRetail.com label barometer showed continued popularity in the Value Own Label division.
Market share of the discounters will grow from 3.9% to 5%, analysts IGD said, to reach a value of £8.5bn.
Chief executive Joanne Denney-Finch said: “Many factors will drive further growth in online food and grocery retailing. Faster home broadband connections are making the shopping experience quicker.”
Retailers are putting more emphasis into online retailing while consumers are becoming more familiar with the shopping experience as a whole, she added.
Moreover, Denney-Finch said, discounters have been taking advantage of the growing trend of people wanting value when they shop for groceries and this is likely to continue.
Today, speaking in the British Retail Consortium-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor, she said consumers are putting more thought into the shopping experience, hunting out bargains.
Asda has said this week shoppers will spend £300m less this year than they did last at Christmas, thanks to a drop in confidence resulting from the economic downturn.
