Sales have dropped for the wholesaler supplied independent convenience channel, while the sector’s share of total grocery transactions has also slightly declined, according to TWC’s Smartview Convenience retail epos data.
The firm reported that independent convenience sales were down -3.8% in the year to 22.03.26, or -4.7% excluding commission (National Lottery and payment services) and ‘other’ (non barcoded/hot keys etc).
TWC also found that the channel’s share of total grocery transactions had slipped by 0.4% with shoppers having increased visits to supermarkets.
TWC added that the multiples’ convenience format stores had failed to see a material increase in share of transactions.
The company claimed that there were about 3.5 billion visits to independent convenience stores (GB) with over £30bn of sales going through the channel in the year to 22.03.26.
The profile of symbol and independent c-store shoppers is significantly skewed towards men (55% vs only 38% in supermarkets) and lower demographic shoppers (33% vs 25% in supermarkets), identified TWC.
The information comes as the consultancy prepares to launch its Channel Track tool, which combines the credit and debit card spend data of 10.2 million UK consumers with 70,000 consumer research interviews to provide a unique data and insight service for the wholesale / route to market channel.
