Total till sales at UK major supermarkets grew by 3% in the last four weeks ending 27 Dec 2025, according to new data released by NielsenIQ (NIQ).
Shoppers spent £19.6bn over the four-week period, with grocery sales peaking in the week ending 20 Dec where shoppers spent £5.3bn, the biggest week of 2025.
With the extra day of trading the following week, with Christmas Eve on a Wednesday, this also benefited large, full range stores (one).
With 29% of households opting to shop for groceries online (two), this was the fastest-growing channel (+9.9%), helping to drive eCommerce share to 13.5% of sales up from 12.6% last year (three).
While promotional spend increased to 27% of sales, shoppers were more considered in what they purchased. NIQ data shows that consumers shopped more often (+1.4%) on and offline for their groceries and spent a little more each time they shopped, with spend per visit up +1.1% on last year at £22.24 (two).
In terms of category performance, impulse (soft drinks, snacks and confectionery) grew by +5.7% and fresh foods grew (+ 4.9%), as intense competition drove retailers to make significant price cuts to win-out the category in the last week before Christmas. Frozen foods also saw an increase (+1.2%), while beer, wine and spirits declined (-0.1%) (one).
Shoppers buy more fresh foods at this time of the year and 32% of eCommerce sales in December were fresh foods, the biggest super category, growing by +9.9%.
Ocado (+12.8%) retained its position as the fastest-growing retailer for the second consecutive Christmas, due to the continued growth of online spending. Meanwhile, Lidl (+9.4%) led growth among store-based retailers. Both Sainsbury’s (+5.7%) and Waitrose (+5.5%) had a successful period, aided by new shoppers and more visits. Tesco (+3.7%) gained market share, and M&S (+4%) also experienced good growth, although this was against higher comparatives compared with last year. Morrisons (+3.1%) had their best trading in six months having seen sales fall in December last year. Sales at Asda (-6.5%) dropped considerably during December.
Mike Watkins, Head of Retailer and Business Insight at NielsenIQ, said: “It’s clear that the convenience of shopping online benefited a lot of UK shoppers over the 2025 Christmas period.
Those retailers with sales momentum at the start of the quarter were able to extend this through to the end of December.
Considering the external mood and continued pressure on household finances, it was a Christmas of cautious celebration and a good four weeks for most food retailers.”
1 NIQ Scantrack Total Coverage
2 NIQ Homescan FMCG
3 NIQ Sc’track eCommerce (defined multiple grocers)