LONDON (Reuters) - British grocery sales on a volume basis, or the number of items sold, showed an improving trend heading into October, suggesting shoppers are starting to reset their spending and take advantage of supermarket price cuts, industry data showed on Tuesday.
Market researcher NIQ, formerly NielsenIQ, said volume sales fell 0.4% in the four weeks to Oct. 7, having been down 0.7% in its September report and down 3.8% in its August report.
Most UK supermarkets have cut the prices of some essential items over recent months and offered more discounts through loyalty schemes, such as Tesco (LON:TSCO)'s Clubcard and Sainsbury's Nectar.
According to NIQ, food price inflation fell for the fifth month in a row to 9.9% in September from 11.5% August and food prices were down for the first time in more than two years in month-on-month terms.
The NIQ sales data going into October provides the most up-to-date snapshot of UK consumer behaviour.
On a value basis, British grocery sales rose 9.1% over the four week period, the researcher said.
Echoing data from rival market researcher Kantar last week, NIQ said discounters Aldi and Lidl were the fastest growing grocers over the 12 weeks to Oct. 7, with sales up 20.0% and 18.4% respectively.
Sales also remained strong at market leader Tesco, at No. 2 Sainsbury's and at Marks & Spencer, with sales up 9.5%, 8.9% and 12.6% respectively.