Total sales in online grocery have decreased by 1 percent compared to last year, to $8.5 billion in August, according to a combined August grocery shopping survey conducted by Brick Meets Click and Mercatus. Despite the dip, digital grocery sales have remained elevated following the increase elicited by the pandemic.
“The COVID pandemic motivated trial of Delivery and Pickup services at a scale that no one could have predicted,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click, in a statement. “And, as the pandemic evolves, it’s increasingly clear that many households find online grocery shopping an acceptable option to complement their new in-store shopping behaviors.”
The report found the following insights when comparing August 2022 shopper behavior to prior periods:
• The monthly active user base for egrocery purchases in August was up 23 percent from 2020 and 116 percent from 2019.
• Overall grocery spending was up by 14 percent in August of this year compared to a year ago.
• Sixty-three percent of online grocery shoppers are likely to use the same service again within one month.
• Monthly users are ordering with less frequency, with order receipts declining from 2.7 to 2.6 between in August 2022 vs. the same month in 2021.
“This downward trend in order frequency is largely the result of a growing MAU [monthly active user] base that is still influenced to some degree by concerns about catching the virus,” explained Bishop.
A partial downturn in ecommerce grocery shopping use seems to have had mixed effects across the board; however, shoppers still use the service, solidifying its place in the grocery shopping experience. In August of this year alone, over 68 million households made at least one grocery order online.
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