The booming market, says analysts Datamonitor, will be the
result of a predicted global growth in the sector of almost 80%
annually. By 2005, the survey projects that the value of internet
food and drinks purchases made in seven European nations plus the
US will have reached $55 billion.
The figures are optimistic and point to a market open to
opportunity. However, there have been several recent collapses in
the US of on-line grocers, most notably Webvan and Peapod. The UK’s
Tesco.com is generally thought to be the only on-line grocer
currently turning a profit. This year it expects to post sales of
more than £300 million.
Currently, the number of internet queries on food and drink
exceeds actual orders placed by as much as 10 to 1. Just 1% of
Datamonitor’s respondents in France, Germany, Italy and Spain had
bought foodstuffs on-line in the past 12 months. Only in the UK and
US did the figure exceed 1 in 20.
One Scottish on-line venture which hopes to exploit the
opportunity provided by the on-line food and beverage industry and
utilise the internet as a sales channel as opposed to a mere
marketing tool is Lastorders.com which has just re-launched after
its first attempt failed when investors withdrew their support.
Lastorders.com is hoping to learn from its mistakes and reap the
profits of the apparently flourishing sector. Ian Gardiner,
Lastorder’s CEO said, “First time round it took 10 months to get to
this point, over a million pounds, 10 staff and an office in
London. This time it took 3 months, a few thousand and 3 people.
The site is better than the last one and we are profitable.”
