Danube Online, an online grocery shopping platform, has reported a 52 percent growth in new users in 2020 compared to the previous year.
The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the online platform’s customers’ shopping habits was evident. A healthy shopping trend persisted with a surge in demand for organic products, up a whopping 78 percent in 2020, while health and diet products such as sugar-free, fish and meat protein, gluten-free, and whole foods were up 26 percent.
Shopping categories such as “Everyday Care” with products like hand sanitizers and skin cleansers, and “Daily Essentials” items such as milk, pasta, baking products and others, saw a 68 percent and 23 percent increase in orders over the previous year respectively.
During the lockdowns, Danube Online customers also took the opportunity to cook at home and try out new recipes. The “Danube Kitchen” feature, which allows shoppers to browse recipes and add ingredients to their carts in “one click,” marked a 132 percent increase during the months of March-May compared to the rest of 2020. The most popular recipes were those with wholesome and nutritious ingredients, such as the superfood immune-boosting salad, super green immune-boosting smoothie and the healthy chocolate cake.
“As we kick off a new year, it’s insightful to see the grocery
shopping trends that have emerged since the world and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia began tackling the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Majed M. Al-Tahan, managing director and co-founder, Danube Online.
“As lockdowns ensued, we saw many people turn to online grocery shopping platforms for the first time and many customers started to cook more at home. Sale surges in pantry items such as baking products were apparent and many shoppers began using our Danube Kitchen feature, where they could browse recipes and ‘click to add recipe to cart,’ with healthy food recipes being the most popular.”
Al-Tahan added: “Our goal is to deliver fresh groceries as soon as possible to our customers across the Kingdom, and we also feel privileged to be able to provide the technology to make cooking healthy food at home easier for our valued customers.”
