The statistics are in on Australia’s 2016 Christmas grocery spending and unfortunately for the supermarkets it was not a big spending year.

According to Nielsen, in the four-week period ending 31 December 2016, there was only a one per cent growth in the dollars spent compared to the same period in 2015, well below the annual growth rate for total grocery.

Megan Treston, Director of Retailer Services at Nielsen, said the way consumers shopped for groceries over the festive season remained similar to the total year trend with 40 per cent of consumers purchasing product while on promotion.

“We also saw consumers slightly reduce the number of items in their basket during December compared to the previous year,” Treston said.

Online Christmas grocery shopping

In 2016, six per cent of Australian households did their Christmas grocery shopping online, spending an average of AUD $208 each household over the month of December.

Online grocery sales in the month of December grew by 19 per cent on online grocery sales purchased in December 2015.

What Australians brought this Christmas

Across the 2016 Christmas period, Australians purchased more fresh berries and avocadoes than they did in 2015, and brought less melons, stone fruit and frozen poultry.

“Interestingly, there were no major shifts in price inflation or deflation driving this trend. However, senior families and small scale families were the two demographic groups that increased their spend above market rates,” Treston concluded.

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