Tesco winning UK online grocery sales war

Tesco.com generates daily online sales of approximately £2.5m

Tesco.com is by far the most popular online grocery site in the UK, capturing 66 per cent of all online grocery orders, new research has revealed.

The retail giant is estimated to clock up an average of 30,000 orders a day, generating daily online sales of approximately £2.5m.

The statistics come from market research company ComScore Networks, which has released the results of an in-depth analysis of proprietary UK online grocery sales data covering the first seven months of 2006.

ComScore's UK database is culled from the behaviour of more than two million consumers worldwide who have given ComScore permission to passively observe their online activities.

Tesco.com's closest online competitor is Asda.co.uk, which captured 16 per cent of all orders, followed by Sainsburystoyou.com with 14 per cent.

Despite its third-place standing in volume, Sainsbury's online customers actually spend the most when they order, averaging almost £90 compared to £80 for both Tesco and Asda.

Asda and Sainsbury's customers typically order more items, both averaging 69 units per order compared to Tesco's 58.

As part of its analysis, ComScore tracked the delivery costs charged at checkout and found that Sainsbury's online customers incurred the lowest delivery charge during the period, at just over £3 per delivery on average.

Tesco's online customers paid over £4 per delivery, and Asda's online customers paid the most at nearly £5.50.