Online grocery growth: a playbook for UK SMBs

E-commerce didn’t just “hold up” over Christmas 2025—it grew faster than any other grocery channel. NielsenIQ reports that 29% of UK households bought groceries online in the four weeks to 27 December, with online grocery up 9.9% year-on-year. Online’s share of festive grocery sales rose from 12.6% to 13.5%.

For UK small businesses, that’s not a grocery story. It’s a buying-behaviour story.

When nearly a third of households are comfortable ordering fresh food to the door, the real message is this: people will happily buy online during high-pressure, high-demand periods—if you make it easy, trustworthy, and timely. If you run a local retailer, food business, subscription brand, hamper company, independent bakery, farm shop, or any small business that spikes around seasonal moments, there are clear lessons here for your digital marketing.

What the Christmas grocery data really tells small businesses

Online grocery growth isn’t about tech hype. It’s about shoppers prioritising convenience, certainty, and value—especially when money feels tight.

Here are the headline numbers worth stealing for your own planning:

• Total UK Christmas grocery spend hit £19.6bn over the four weeks (up 2.5%) according to NielsenIQ.
• Supermarket till sales grew 3% even though unit sales dipped 0.2% (people bought slightly fewer items, but spent more).
• Shoppers were “more considered” in 2025: they shopped 1.4% more often and spent 1.1% more per trip.
• Promotions were a major driver: NielsenIQ puts promotional sales at 27% of December sales, and Worldpanel reported deals made up 33.3% of festive sales.

Small business takeaway: the winning formula is rarely “sell more stuff.” It’s usually:

1. Be present when demand peaks (search + social).
2. Make buying frictionless (mobile checkout, clear delivery, strong trust signals).
3. Use smart offers (bundles, deadlines, limited quantities) without racing to the bottom.

Seasonality isn’t luck. It’s a calendar you can market to.

The grocery peak wasn’t Christmas Eve. It was earlier: NielsenIQ says sales peaked in the week ending 20 December at £5.3bn.

That lines up with what I’ve seen repeatedly with small retailers: the money is made before the “big day.” People plan earlier, panic earlier, and want delivery slots earlier. If your marketing starts when everyone else starts, you’re already late.

A simple seasonal campaign timeline (you can reuse all year)

Use this structure for Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s, summer BBQ season, back-to-school—anything.

1. Prep phase (4–6 weeks out):

   • Refresh landing pages (delivery cut-offs, gifting options, FAQs).
   • Publish one “helpful” SEO piece (e.g., “Christmas hamper ideas under £30” or “How to choose wine for roast dinner”).
   • Build your remarketing audiences (site visitors, video viewers, email engagement).

2. Demand phase (2–3 weeks out):

   • Run paid social to bestsellers and bundles.
   • Send email/SMS with clear deadlines (“Last order for pre-Christmas delivery: 18 Dec”).
   • Post daily social proof (reviews, behind-the-scenes packing, delivery confirmations).

3. Peak phase (7–10 days out):

   • Shift messaging from “browse” to “buy now” with urgency.
   • Promote higher-margin bundles and add-ons (gift notes, upgrades, extras).
   • Keep customer service highly visible (live chat hours, fast replies).

4. After phase (first 10 days of Jan):

   • Sell refills, subscriptions, and “treat yourself” products.
   • Ask for reviews and UGC.
   • Retarget gift buyers with a next purchase incentive.

Small business takeaway: the grocery data shows shoppers plan earlier than you think. Your digital marketing calendar should too.

Why online won: convenience plus trust (and you can copy that)

NielsenIQ’s data highlights a detail many small businesses underestimate: 32% of ecommerce sales in December were in fresh foods, making it the biggest online “super category” and growing 9.9%.

Fresh food is unforgiving. If people are willing to buy it online, they’re signalling high trust in:

• delivery reliability
• clear substitution policies
• quality expectations
• customer service when something goes wrong

Trust signals that lift conversion (especially for small retailers)

You don’t need a massive brand to build trust. You need clarity.

• Delivery promise above the fold: cost, cut-off times, and typical arrival windows.
• Returns/refunds in plain English: one paragraph, not a legal page.
• Real reviews near the “Add to basket” button: product-level reviews beat homepage testimonials.
• “What’s in the box” specifics: weights, counts, allergens, storage instructions.
• Visible contact options: email + phone or WhatsApp, plus response times.

A strong delivery promise is a sales asset, not an operations footnote.

Small business takeaway: if you want online sales growth, start by making your online experience feel safe and predictable.

Competition lesson: momentum beats size

Over the festive period, the fastest-growing online retailer again was Ocado, with sales up 12.8%. Lidl led store-based growth at 9.4%. Meanwhile, Asda saw sales fall 6.5% in December and its market share dropped to 11.4% from 12.4%.

You might not care about supermarket market share, but the principle matters: the businesses that start the quarter strong tend to carry momentum into the peak. NielsenIQ’s Mike Watkins explicitly points to retailers with “sales momentum” early in the quarter extending it through December.

What “momentum” looks like for a small business

Momentum is built from repeatable weekly habits:

• New content that targets real searches (SEO)
• Consistent paid spend with controlled testing (not one frantic December blast)
• Regular email sends that train customers to buy from you
• Retargeting that keeps you visible to warm audiences

Here’s a practical weekly rhythm that works on limited budgets:

1. One SEO task: improve a key page, add FAQs, update internal links.
2. One creative refresh: swap your top two ad images/videos.
3. One retention action: email a segment (VIPs, lapsed buyers, first-time buyers).
4. One offer test: bundle vs. percentage-off vs. free delivery threshold.

Small business takeaway: you don’t need a massive budget. You need consistency before the peak.

Promotions worked—so use them without damaging your margins

Promotions made up a huge chunk of Christmas grocery sales (27% to 33.3% depending on source). That doesn’t mean “discount everything.” It means shoppers are deal-aware and comparison-happy.

Better-than-discount offers for UK small businesses

If you want a festive lift without training customers to wait for a sale:

• Bundles: “Dinner for 4” kits, gift sets, or “build your own box” tiers.
• Threshold perks: free delivery over £X, free gift over £Y.
• Limited runs: seasonal flavours, small batches, numbered hampers.
• Add-on upgrades: premium packaging, gift notes, next-day dispatch.

And if you do discount, do it deliberately:

• discount one hero product to acquire customers
• make the discount time-bound
• capture the email at checkout and follow up quickly

Discounting is fine. Discounting without a retention plan is expensive.

Small business takeaway: the data shows deals drive volume. Your job is to turn deal buyers into repeat buyers.

A 10-point online sales checklist to steal before your next peak

Use this as your pre-season audit (Christmas 2026, Mother’s Day, Eid, summer, anything).

1. Mobile speed: your main pages load quickly on 4G.
2. Clear delivery cut-offs: visible on product and basket pages.
3. Best sellers surfaced: “popular this week” beats endless browsing.
4. Bundles built: at least 3 bundles at different price points.
5. Email capture working: welcome offer, clear value, not annoying.
6. Abandoned basket emails live: even a simple one recovers revenue.
7. Retargeting installed: Meta + Google tags, audiences building year-round.
8. Seasonal landing page: one URL you can reuse and update annually.
9. Reviews integrated: product reviews + a post-purchase review request.
10. Stock messaging: “only 12 left” / “back in stock Friday” to reduce hesitation.

People also ask: what does online grocery growth mean for my business?

It means customers expect online ordering to be normal, even for “fresh” categories. The Christmas 2025 figures show ecommerce taking share in a period when shoppers are time-poor and cautious with money.

If you’re local-only, it still matters. Online visibility (local SEO, Google Business Profile, social proof, click-and-collect messaging) influences where people shop in-person.

If you already sell online, the opportunity is retention. Holiday spikes can bankroll Q1 if you collect emails, follow up with replenishment offers, and keep remarketing active.

What to do next (and what to fix first)

The online grocery surge over Christmas is your reminder that digital-first buying habits aren’t slowing down—they’re spreading into more categories and becoming routine.

If you’re working through this British Small Business Digital Marketing series to strengthen your fundamentals, start here: pick one seasonal moment in the next 60–90 days and build a simple campaign around search intent + trust signals + a sensible offer.

Want a practical next step? Audit your top product page and your checkout on mobile. If it’s even slightly confusing, you’re paying for traffic you can’t convert.

What’s the next peak moment for your business—and are you building momentum now, or hoping for a last-minute rush?