A new report from Mintel has predicted that the annual amount spent on groceries purchased via safe shopping online will hit £15 billion by the year 2020, according to the Daily Mail.

This represents a 73 per cent rise on current levels, suggesting that consumers are going to ditch supermarkets in favour of buying their consumables via e-commerce sites.

Footfall at traditional supermarkets has been waning in recent years, with a combination of safe shopping online and convenience stores filling the gap which used to be occupied by a single weekly trip to larger outlets.

43 per cent of the people questioned in the study said that they are already taking advantage of e-commerce sites to place orders for consumables which are tougher to carry, including tinned goods and cleaning products.

23 per cent said that they currently order the majority of their groceries online, with a fifth of millennials in the under-35 age group stating that they never make in-store purchases anymore.

The report’s authors said that for a growing proportion of the British population, the age of the supermarket is coming to an end. And the convenience of being able to place an order for a grocery delivery while at home, rather than having to brave the hustle and bustle of a bricks and mortar store, is the main attraction.

The study also identified the financial advantages of buying groceries online, since people can not only get the best deals but can also keep a closer eye on how much they are spending.

Mintel spokesperson, Nick Carroll, said that the double digit growth expected to hit the online grocery market in the next four years may be significant, but will still remain representative of a relatively small part of the market as a whole.