Spending on online groceries is expected to grow 15 percent in 2019, according to a new report.
That will give online a 6.3 percent share of all grocery sales, according to Barrington, Illinois-based strategic advisory firm Brick Meets Click. The company also predicts that services that offer delivery and pickup will grow their online sales from 25 to 30 percent.
“Increasing the number of households who have access to online grocery shopping services with home delivery or pickup could add almost two points to the percentage of U.S. households who buy groceries online, pushing the 2019 monthly rate past 25% at the national level,” says David Bishop, a Brick Meets Click partner. “At the same time, this will offer a meaningful boost to particular providers in those market areas, as we expect that most of the sales generated by new households going online for groceries will flow toward the brick and mortar delivery or pickup providers.”
Bishop adds that, while Amazon may help customers buy those hard-to-find favorite items or get recurring orders of some essential groceries and receive them in two or three days, a delivery or pickup service can dramatically improve shopper outcomes when it comes to satisfying a broad range of overall household grocery needs.
Brick Meets Click found that, compared to households that use Amazon, households that use an online grocery delivery or pickup service place more frequent orders (1.9 vs. 1.6 orders per month) and spend considerably more money per order (an average of $105 vs. $46). This equates to households spending almost three times more with a delivery or pickup service vs. Amazon on a monthly basis ($200 vs. $74 respectively).
“Whether an online grocery shopper uses delivery or pickup, both services offer shoppers greater convenience, more control, and better ability to accomplish more of the household’s grocery shopping than providers who ship orders to the home in two or even three days,” says Bishop. “Where else can a grocery shopper receive an order in one hour or less, select a specific time slot for receiving the order, and get almost all the same things as when shopping in the store?”