51 Million Consumers Grocery Shop Online Every Month

BY Rachel Cagle
Featured image for “51 Million Consumers Grocery Shop Online Every Month”

"The leading grocery retailers have been playing a game of one-​upmanship when it comes to raising the bar on online ordering convenience. From offering grocery delivery to-​your-​door to same-​day delivery through a variety of service modes, like drive-​up pick-​up, grocers are making shopping easier and an increasing number of consumers are responding."

"The percentage of U.S. consumers, ages 18 and above, who shopped online for groceries within a 30-​day period, whether for delivery or pick-​up in store, increased from 17% in the quarter ending November 2018 to 20%, or about 51 million consumers, in the quarter ending February 2019, reports The NPD Group."

"Of those who shop online for groceries from brick and mortar or pure-​play online grocers, 16% order their food and beverages for delivery. The option to order online and pick-​up in store, also known as click-​and-​collect or BOPUS (buy online pickup in store) is favored by 11% of online grocery shoppers. Seven percent of these shoppers mix it up and do both, according to NPD’s National Eating Trends Omnichannel Scorecard." 

"Delivery was the mode of choice for 16% of consumers who order groceries online. A behavior most developed among urban consumers with suburbanites coming in second and rural grocery shoppers third. The click-​and-​collect/​BOPUS shopping behavior skews to adults, ages 18–44; households with kids; and urban shoppers, who show a higher rate for this behavior than other shoppers overall, suburban shoppers show an average rate, and rural households are under-developed."

'Digital purchasing will accelerate in food retailing, just as it has in other retail sectors where we see much higher rates of online purchases,' says David Portalatin, NPD’s food industry advisor and author of Eating Patterns in America. 'Still, the brick and mortar grocery store will always be a necessary means of acquiring foods, especially those where consumers place a premium on their sensory assessment to ensure quality, like meats, fruits and vegetables. This gives forward thinking retailers and their vendor partners an opportunity to truly create an omnichannel experience for the consumer and revolutionize the way we think about grocery merchandising.'”

That's not all Frequent Grocery Shoppers do online. According to AudienceSCAN, within the last month, 40.1% have used the internet to conduct research on a product or service they were considering and within the last six months, they used mobile devices to watch online or streamed videos (51.7%) and view retailer websites (25.3%). They're also receptive to digital advertisements, including sponsored search results, email ads, advertisements on daily deals sites such as Groupon and mobile ads.

AudienceSCAN data is available for your applications and dashboards through the SalesFuel API. In addition, AdMall contains industry profiles on supermarkets/​grocery stores and department stores, as well as lead lists at the local level. Media companies, sales reps and agencies can access this data with a subscription to AdMall from SalesFuel.


Share: