Overall online grocery sales for April were up 0.9 percent versus last year, totaling $8.2 billion, according to a survey from Brick Meets Click/Merctus, a grocery insights company, fielded April 28-29 among 1,746 U.S. adults.
Across pickup, delivery, and ship-to-home, however, market share varied greatly: delivery jumped 20 percent in April 2023 compared to last year, while pickup decreased by three percent, and ship-to-home decreased by 19 percent over the same period. The survey report suggested that the gains in delivery were driven by an increase in monthly active users, and the increased average order value, while the declines in ship-to-home were due to a contraction of its monthly active user base and drops in average order value.
Repeat intent scores, which measure how likely customers are to use the same service within 30 days, reveal two concerning statistics, according to the report: only 58 percent of users will use the same service twice in a 30-day period, down 5.3 percentage points compared to last year, and the repeat intent rate for mass (Walmart, Target, etc.) fell by three percentage points, while the rate for supermarkets fell by almost nine percentage points over the same period, signaling the largest gap to date between the two markets.
“A macro view of the egrocery market can reveal certain opportunity gaps, but it may also obscure key shopping dynamics within a particular segment of the market,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click, in a statement. “For example, it’s difficult to see how little overlap exists between the households that use Pickup and those that use Delivery services or to know that Pickup grew stronger in Mass during April unless you’re able to dig deeper into the segment dynamics...”
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