Online grocery sales increased 43 percent over a year ago, according to new data from Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey, reports Progressive Grocer.
"A year since COVID-19 changed how we live, work and shop, online grocery demonstrates continued strength and impressive staying power,” said David Bishop, partner, Brick Meets Click. “The monthly active user base remains robust, average order values are at similarly elevated levels and order frequency has gone up.”
Research found that 69.3 million households placed one or more online orders in March, compared to 74.5 million during the same period a year ago when stay-at-home orders and retail restrictions first went into effect. While this is a 7 percent decline in the monthly active user base, it was driven by fewer households making online grocery purchases that are shipped to the home via common or contract carriers.
The ship-to-home segment of the online grocery market lost 27 percent of its monthly users on a year-over-year basis, while the pickup segment gained 12 percent, and delivery gained 23 percent, illustrating how the pandemic has changed the way people shop.
In addition, a year ago, shoppers faced challenges like out-of-stocks and insufficient order slot capacity, which lowered the overall experience and led to repeat intent rates plummeting to under 43 percent. Now, however, retailers have largely addressed these issues and in March, the leading satisfaction indicator, “likelihood to use a specific service again,” came in at 62 percent.
“Over the last 12 months, consumers’ dramatic shift to online grocery shopping has solidified, with curbside pickup attracting the largest share of monthly shoppers at 53 percent compared to ship-to-home and delivery,” said Sylvain Perrier, president and CEO, Mercatus. “In fact, pickup continues to have stronger consumer demand across all market types compared to delivery. Those brick-and-mortar chains that have invested in optimizing pickup services likely will continue to benefit from the high repeat intent rate as indicated in the data.” Full Story
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