Aug 2021: Total U.S. Online Grocery Sales Grow to $8.6 Billion, up 4.7% Year Over Year

Top-line

The U.S.online grocery market generated $8.6 billion in sales during August, a gain of 4.7%versus a year ago, as ship-to-home sales dropped nearly 22% to $2 billion and the combined delivery/pickup segment grew over 16% to $6.6 billion, according to the Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey fielded August 29-30, 2021.

“COVID’s resurgence has clearly contributed to the August sales gain,” said David Bishop, partner, Brick Meets Click. “While a retailer doesn’t control the external market forces, such as the new wave of COVID cases that continued through August,they can choose how effectively their business is positioned to respond to the current circumstances that are disrupting customers’ lives.”

Key Findings & Insights: August 2021

The pandemic continues to change how grocery shopping is done and the role that online plays.  

According to the Aug 2021 Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey  , The year-over-year sales gain was driven by a strong uptick in the number of Americans going online and using a pickup or delivery service to satisfy their essential grocery needs.

Larger (and shifting) base of engaged households

The number of U.S. households that bought groceries online in Aug, using any of the three receiving methods, jumped 25% to 69.0 million households compared to Aug 2020.

Somewhat surprisingly, the segment-level results revealed that the size of the ship-to-home MAU base dropped around 10% in August compared to last year, while pickup expanded nearly 50% and delivery grew30%

Lower AOV across all methods

The weighted average spending per order across all three receiving methods shrank nearly 13%versus last August but was up more than 4% versus the prior month.

Despite the double-digit decline in average order value (AOV) on a year-over-year basis, AOVs for each of the receiving methods has remained above pre-COVID AOVs by mid-single to low-double digit percentages.

Reduced order frequency

Monthly active users placed an average of 2.73 online orders during August 2021, down 3.7% versus the prior year, but the current level was35% above the pre-COVID level in Aug. 2019.

In addition, ship-to-home’s order share has plummeted by nearly 19 percentage points compared to pre-COVID, illustrating one of many ways that online grocery shopping behaviors continue to evolve

Repeat intent - slightly up MOM but down YOY

Thelikelihood that an MAU will order again in the next month using the same grocery service in August grew approximately 3.5 points versus July 2021 to 60%.

However,each month’s repeat intent rate since the start of 2021, has consistently lagged August 2020 and 2019 rates by more than 10 points, reflecting in part the circumstances that have attracted customers to shop online, and the challenges associated with the shopping experience.

Continued cross-shopping between Grocery & Mass/Supercenter

During August, the share of online customers that used both a grocery service and a mass/discount service to buy groceries during August rebounded slightly from July 2021 to 26%.

The current level of cross-shopping was eight and 11 percentage points higher respectively versus Aug. 2020 and 2019. The ongoing shift in how and where customers shop online for groceries reinforces the need for conventional grocers to manage how well they’re executing compared to the mass discounters.

Sponsor Message & Appreciation

“While COVID has transformed customer behavior,the fundamentals of acquisition, retention and repeat purchase still apply,”said Sylvain Perrier, president and CEO, Mercatus.

“The more successful grocers continue to dive deeper into their customer data to better understand what’s building and, equally important, what’s hindering stronger engagement. This insight-driven approach is enabling retailers to learn to what degree they need to improve elements of strategy and/or execution.”

We thank the team at Mercatus for their continued generous support of the August research wave. Click here to see the September 14, 2021 press release.

About this Consumer Research

* The Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey is an ongoing independent research initiative created and conducted by Brick Meets Click and sponsored by Mercatus.

Brick Meets Click conducted the survey on August 29-30, 2021, with1,806 adults, 18 years and older, who participated in the household’s grocery shopping.

Results were adjusted based on internet usage among U.S. adults to account for the non-response bias associated with online surveys. Responses are geographically representative of the U.S. and were weighted by age to reflect the national population of adults, 18 years and older, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Brick Meets Click used a similar methodology in terms of design, timing, and sampling for each of the surveys conducted July 29-30, 2021(n=1,892), June 27-28, 2021 (n= 1,789); May 28-30, 2021 (n=1,872), Apr. 26-28, 2021(n=1,941), Mar. 26-28, 2021 (n=1,811), Feb. 26-28, 2021 (n= 1,812), Jan. 28-31, 2021 (n=1,776); throughout 2020 on Nov. 11-14 (n=2,067), Aug. 24-26 (n=1,817), June 24-25 (n=1,781), May 20-22 (n=1,724), April 22-24 (n= 1,651), and March 23-25 (n=1,601); and on Aug. 22-24, 2019 (n = 2,485).