Nov 2020 Online Grocery Scorecard: Customer & sales mix shift toward delivery & pickup

Topline

US grocery delivery and pickup sales for November 2020 totaled $5.9 billion, up 3.6% from August’s $5.7 billion, in a market where the customer and sales mix are shifting toward delivery and pickup services.

The $5.9 billion sales captured by online grocery delivery and pickup segments represents 73% of the total online sales of $8.1 billion during November (see chart at bottom of post), and the monthly active users of delivery or pickup services reported a record-high repeat purchase intent rate of 83%.

For retailers providing delivery and/or pick up services, the continued strong monthly sales trend along with a customer mix that reflects a declining share of first-time users, underscores the growing importance for companies to develop, implement, and execute sustainable business-building strategies.

November SCORECARD

According the new November 2020 Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey   , in the last 30 days, shoppers using online grocery delivery and pick up services are:

Creating a growing shopper base that orders more frequently. The number of active online grocery shoppers placing at least one delivery or pickup order during the past month increased to 38.7 million, up 3.6% from 37.5 million in August 2020, and they placed an average of 1.62 orders per month, up 2% compared to 1.59 orders per month in August 2020.

Even more satisfied & engaged than August 2020. Intent to make a repeat purchase in the next month with the last service used jumped to 83%. This record-high level of repeat purchase intent highlights improving shopping experiences. The previous high of 75% was reached in August 2020 ,and the low of 43% occurred in March 2020 during the early stages of the pandemic.

Becoming more experienced with the services. The new research revealed a declining share of first-time online shoppers in the customer mix – 17% were first-time shoppers during November, down from 23% in August 2020.

Key insight: The changing shopper mix means retailers may experience headwinds for growth in their delivery and pickup offers. This challenge emphasizes the importance of leveraging tactics designed to boost ongoing usage and spending per order with existing customers.

About the research

Brick Meets Click’s ongoing research provides an update on key performance metrics for US online grocery orders fulfilled by delivery or pickup for the past 30 days . (Note: The Scorecard metrics focus on orders fulfilled by delivery or pickup, excluding online grocery orders that are shipped to home via common or contract carriers.)

Brick Meets Click conducted this online survey November 11-14, 2020 with 2,067 adults, 18 years and older, who participated in the household’s grocery shopping.

• Results were adjusted based internet usage among US adults, 18 years and older, according to the Pew Research Center, to account for the non-response bias associated with online surveys.
• Responses were also weighted by age to reflect the national population of adults, 18 years and older, during each respective year, according to the US Census Bureau.

A similar methodology in terms of survey design, timing, and sampling was used with each of the surveys fielded in 2020: August 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).

The 2019 results are based on a similar survey conducted on August 21-23, 2019 with 2,485 adults, 18 years and older.

Thanks to Mercatus

We thank the team at Mercatus for their continued generous support of the November research wave. Click here to see the December 8, 2020 press release  .