Online Grocery Sales Spiked in April
The U.S. online grocery market grew 4.4 percent in April compared to last year, and was driven by growth in ship-to-home, pickup, and delivery segments, with monthly sales jumping to $8.5 billion, according to the most recent Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopper Survey, fielded April 29-30, 2024.
The survey found that more online grocery customers are buying from mass retailers than supermarkets. In April, mass retailers supplied orders to 51 percent of the overall online grocery monthly active user base (MAU), up 5 percentage points year over year. On the other hand, supermarket retailers engaged only 30 percent of the MAU base for April, down 2.8 percentage points from a year ago.
“Delivery sales in eGrocery continue to benefit from significant interest and investment from third-party providers and Walmart,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click, in a statement. “One question related to this growth remains whether many of the newer customers who are attracted by the trial offers will behave like streaming subscription service users who choose to use one service at a time until the ‘free’ period expires, and then jump to the next special offer.”
Growth in spending, driven largely by ship-to-home, generated most of the year-over-year sales uplift as overall penetration held steady and order frequency slipped compared to a year ago, according to the report. Following is a breakdown of the performance of each online grocery segment:
• Ship-to-Home sales posted a 10.2 percent gain: the growth was primarily due to a substantial year-over-year increase in average order value, after rebounding from a dramatic drop in 2023.
• Pickup sales increased 2.1 percent versus last year: Higher spending levels accounted for the gains as the AOV climbed in the mid-single digits while order volume dropped due to a combination of fewer MAUs for the service.
• Delivery sales climbed 4.3 percent compared to a year ago: Sales were aided by the expansion of delivery’s MAU base as penetration increased across all age groups.
The research also noted mass retail customers are more likely to buy online. Brick Meets Click found that for households that primarily buy groceries from a mass retailer and buy groceries online, 83 percent completed one or more online grocery orders with their primary grocer in April. In comparison, for households that primarily shop at a supermarket and buy groceries online, only 54 percent bought groceries online from a supermarket, down 6.4 percentage points versus 2023.