The U.S. online grocery market finished May with $6.9 billion in total sales, down 3.4 percent compared to last year’s $7.2 billion. Grocery pickup, however, eluded the downturn, garnering its largest sales share to date, according to a Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey fielded May 30-31.
The dip in sales for May 2023 was driven by a combination of fewer households buying groceries online during the month compared to last year and a decline in the average number of orders placed by active shoppers, according to the survey.
Key findings show that results were mixed across pickup, ship-to-home, and delivery. Although pickup grew 9.1 percent, contributing to 50.7 percent of total egrocery sales, ship-to-home fell by 17 percent, and delivery by 11.7 percent.
The study found that fewer households buy groceries online. The overall monthly active user (MAU) base for online grocery declined by five percent across all egrocery segments. Moreover, the average number of orders placed by MAUs fell five percent to 2.51 in May 2023 versus 2022, continuing a downward trend from the record high of 2.91 in May 2020.
“The decline in order frequency is the result of the growing number of MAUs who placed only one egrocery order during the month. This accounted for one-third of all active customers and caused headwinds across all the segments,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click, in a statement.
Despite these declines, overall spending per order increased by nearly eight percent in May versus the prior year, largely due to higher prices for grocery products. Looking at each segment on a year-over-year basis:
• Pickup’s average order value climbed almost 13 percent to $92.
• Delivery average order value increased five percent to $85.
• Ship-to-Home average order value slipped by roughly three percent to $43.
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