Leading Grocery Brands in Great Britain: Q1 2025 Analysis

Introduction

In the competitive landscape of grocery stores in Great Britain, brands like Tesco, Lidl, and ASDA stand out with significant digital footprints. This article delves into their performance from Q4 2024 to Q1 2025, focusing on monthly deduplicated audiences across websites and apps. Leveraging Sensor Tower's comprehensive data offerings, we provide insights into audience trends, app engagement, and advertising strategies.

Tesco Grocery

Tesco maintains a robust online presence with its website, tesco.com, and the Tesco Grocery & Clubcard app.

• Audience Trends:

  • Website Visits: From October 2024 to March 2025, visits peaked in January with over 97M visits, reflecting a post-holiday surge.

  • True Audience: The monthly deduplicated audience remained stable above 23M throughout the period, with a notable increase to over 26M in March 2025.

  • Web vs. App: The app audience consistently surpassed web-only visitors, suggesting a strong mobile preference.

• App Engagement:

  • Monthly active users grew steadily, surpassing 4.7M by March 2025, indicating a rising trend in app utilization.

• Ad Spend & Channels:

  • Total monthly ad spend varied, with a notable dip in January to below $2M but rebounding to over $3.8M in February.

  • Facebook and Instagram dominated ad channels, delivering the majority of impressions, particularly in the OTT and desktop display formats.

Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG

Lidl's digital strategy is anchored by its website, lidl.com, and the Lidl Plus app.

• Audience Trends:

  • Website Visits: Visits fluctuated moderately, peaking in January 2025 with over 19M visits.

  • True Audience: The monthly deduplicated audience showed consistent growth, reaching nearly 10.6M by March 2025.

  • Web vs. App: A strong preference for the app was evident, with app-only visitors consistently outnumbering web-only visitors.

• App Engagement:

  • Monthly active users increased steadily, with March 2025 seeing over 2.8M users, highlighting growing app engagement.

• Ad Spend & Channels:

  • Monthly ad spend saw a gradual increase, reaching over $2.2M in March 2025.

  • Facebook and Instagram were key platforms, delivering substantial impressions across various digital channels.

ASDA

ASDA's digital ecosystem spans asda.com and the ASDA app.

• Audience Trends:

  • Website Visits: Visits remained robust, averaging above 110M monthly, with a slight dip in February.

  • True Audience: Consistently above 9M, with a peak in March 2025, indicating stable audience engagement.

  • Web vs. App: Web-only visitors dominated, although app engagement showed resilience with gradual growth.

• App Engagement:

  • Monthly active users hovered around 700K, reflecting a stable but modest app usage.

• Ad Spend & Channels:

  • Monthly ad spend was highest in December 2024, exceeding $4M, before stabilizing around $2M in subsequent months.

  • Instagram and Facebook were prominent channels, with significant impressions in video and display formats.

Conclusion

The digital strategies of Tesco, Lidl, and ASDA highlight diverse approaches to engaging the GB grocery market. Tesco's mobile-centric focus, Lidl's balanced web and app presence, and ASDA's strong web engagement reflect distinct brand strengths. Sensor Tower's unparalleled data offerings provide critical insights into these trends, enabling brands to refine their digital strategies effectively. For more detailed insights, explore Sensor Tower's Web Insights, App Performance Insights, and Pathmatics offerings.