Delivery platform foodora has revealed insights on how consumers across Austria, Sweden, Norway, Czechia and Hungary shop at Easter, drawing on four years of aggregated order data, between 2022 and 2025.
The data covers consumer preferences across chocolate type, chocolate weight, meat choices, vegetable selection, timing of purchases, and the role of discounts, illustrating how Europe‘s consumers stock up for the Easter holiday.
Chocolate is king
Chocolate continues to play a central role in Easter celebrations, with milk chocolate remaining the dominant choice. Across all five markets, it accounts for 91% of total chocolate sales over the four-year period.
However, consumer tastes are diversifying, the data shows. White chocolate has nearly doubled its share, rising from 3.4% in 2022 to 6.9% in 2025, while dark chocolate has also grown steadily to 5.1%.
The data also highlights a structural change in purchasing behaviour, with consumers increasingly opting for smaller chocolate formats. Products in the 0–50g range – which includes individually wrapped eggs and snack-sized bars – have grown significantly, becoming the largest category in 2025 with a 34.5% share. In contrast, larger formats have seen a decline in share, dropping from 23.2% to 14.5%.
‘ This consistent shift toward lighter, smaller products suggests that customers are increasingly purchasing Easter chocolate as small and potentially impulse additions to the grocery baskets rather than as centrepiece gifts,’ foodora noted.
Easter dinner
In terms of the Easter dinner table, ham remains the most popular choice across the surveyed markets, selected by just over half of consumers (52.5%) in 2025.
However, chicken is emerging as a strong alternative, increasing sharply from 35.2% in 2024 to 46.8% in 2025. In some countries, including Hungary, chicken has already surpassed ham in popularity. Other traditional meats such as lamb and veal remain niche, representing less than 1% of orders.
Easter shopping behaviour also indicates a clear ‘last-minute’ trend, with the majority of Easter purchases occur within the final three days leading up to Easter Sunday, with peak order volumes typically recorded two to three days before the holiday.
‘Discount behaviour follows the same pattern,’ foodora noted. ‘Across the four-year dataset, promotional orders spike sharply in the last three days before Easter, suggesting that retailers and foodora’s commercial partners time their discount offers to align with – and amplify – the natural last-minute surge in demand. On average overall, the discount ratio is highest from Wednesday through to Good Friday, and until Saturday just before Easter Sunday.’ Read more here.
