Online supermarkets see rise in new customers and sales

Online supermarkets have seen their daily orders triple and a steep rise in the number of new customers since the coronavirus made its appearance.

Fear by many consumers of being in crowded spaces like supermarkets, combined with a desire to increase their stock of durable goods, detergents and disinfectants, have sent online supermarket sales soaring even though they are usually at particularly low levels in Greece.

"Against a typical number of 200 orders per day, there have been days when we reach 700 orders," a spokesperson for a major supermarket chain tells Kathimerini, referring to the company's online store. It has seen its online orders rise by around 200 percent since the coronavirus first made its appearance, with the biggest rise seen last week, when the first case was confirmed in Greece.

"Besides an increase in orders, we have also noted an...