Topline

• The U.S. online grocery market hit $7.7 billion in sales for June 2024, marking an impressive 8% increase from last year.  
• Delivery sales saw a significant surge following aggressive promotions last month. Ship-to-Home also showed robust performance, driven by higher spending per order, and Pickup held steady year-over-year.

The U.S. online grocery market finished June 2024 with $7.7 billion in monthly sales, an 8.0% increase over last year according to the Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopper Survey fielded June 30-31, 2024.

“Delivery’s strong performance in June likely benefited from the promotional offers made last month, first by Instacart and then by Walmart,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click. “These promotions focused on Delivery and offered deep discounts on each service’s annual membership fees, which helped boost both monthly active users and order frequency for Delivery and for Walmart.”

Results by receiving method

Delivery sales jumped to $2.9 billion, up 18% compared to a year ago.

• Surges in the monthly active user (MAU) base and higher order activity drove the year-over-year gain, although the average order value (AOV) fell somewhat.
• Delivery gained 325 basis points (bps) versus last year, capturing 38% of eGrocery sales for June ’24.

June’s Pickup sales of $3.5 billion remained essentially unchanged on a year-over-year basis even though the MAU base for Pickup expanded in the mid-single digit range.

• Slightly lower AOV plus a decline in order frequency offset the positive effects of the larger MAU base.
• Pickup’s share of eGrocery sales fell 352 bps on a year-over-year basis to finish at 45% in June ’24 but it remains the share leader.

Ship-to-Home sales climbed nearly 10% versus last year to $1.3 billion for June ’24, marking its fourth straight month of year-over-year sales gains.

• Higher AOVs drove the sales lift despite a 1% contraction in its MAU base and a dip in order frequency.
• Ship-to-Home finished June with almost 17% of eGrocery sales, up 26 bps compared to a year ago.

Customer churn vs. “new customers” to online grocery

The overall eGrocery MAU base expanded nearly 4% versus June ’23, driven almost entirely by reactivating lapsed users.

• While the total pool of households that have ever bought groceries online grew just 14 bps, the overall eGrocery MAU base expanded by 4%.
• The gap between these two measures highlights that the increase in customers during June ’24 is largely due to less-frequent users making another order or lapsed customers giving the service another chance.

Cross-shopping rates remained elevated

Nearly one in three customers bought online from both Grocery and Mass formats during June ’24.

• 31.6% of Grocery customers (which includes both Supermarkets and Hard Discounters) also received an online grocery order from a Mass retailer in June.
• 22% of Grocery customers received online orders from Walmart specifically, up 150 bps versus last year.

Heads up! Repeat intent rates trending down, especially among frequent users.

Overall repeat intent rates for June dipped to 56.0%, down nearly seven percentage points compared to last year, driven by frequent users.

• Frequent users – those who placed 4 or more orders in the past three months – showed an almost ten-point drop versus June '23.

• Of particular concern: Grocery experienced double the decline that Mass did.

Mass takes top spot as primary format for grocery purchases

• 42% of households reported that they bought most of their groceries (whether online or in-store) from the Mass format, up approximately 190 bps in June ’24 versus last year.
• The Supermarket format dipped 250 bps to 39%.
• Most of the share shift was due to an uptick in households with annual incomes under $50,000 doing their grocery shopping primarily at a Mass retailer.

Message from Mercatus

"Regional grocers need to stem the tide and regain market share by leveling the playing field against mass merchants, despite these rivals having a price advantage," said Mark Fairhurst, Chief Growth Officer at Mercatus. "Integrating personalized and targeted promotions into their first-party platform experience will be key to re-engaging lapsed customers and improving repeat purchase rates. Additionally, incorporating high-level, in-store customer service into the digital experience – a strength that regionals are known for – will be crucial and can give them an advantage over their mass competitors."

For more information about June 2024 results, check out the latest Brick Meets Click eGrocery Dashboard or visit the eGrocery Monthly Sales report page for information about subscribing to the full monthly report.

About this consumer research

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

Brick Meets Click conducted the most recent survey on June 30-31, 2024, with 1,744 adults, 18 years and older, who participated in the household’s grocery shopping, and a similar survey in June 2023 (n=1,769).   Results are 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 weighted by age to reflect the national population of adults, 18 years and older, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The three receiving methods for online grocery orders are defined as follows:

• Delivery includes orders received from a first- or third-party provider like Instacart, Shipt or the retailer's own employees.
• Pickup includes orders that are received by customers either inside or outside a store or at a designated location/locker.
• Ship-to-Home includes orders that are received via common or contract carriers like FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc.