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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Brick Meets Click

Survey: Online Grocery Had $8.4B in Sales in April, Down 10 Percent from March

Some of the stats we’re watching closely as our nation slowly comes out of the pandemic are those for online grocery sales. Namely, will the e-commerce curbside pickup and delivery habits consumers were pushed into during lockdowns stay now that we can literally breathe easier back in stores?

Thankfully the Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey is keeping track, and according to the numbers released yesterday, U.S. online grocery sales were $8.4 billion in April. This is down 10 percent from March’s $9.3 billion, but up 16 percent from April 2020.

Brick Meets Click/Mercatus found that 67.8 million U.S. households bought groceries online in April, which is down 12 percent from a year ago. While there were fewer households, those that purchased groceries online bought more. Monthly active users placed an average of 2.73 online orders in April 2021, up a tick from 2.68 orders a year ago. Of these orders, 78 percent were for delivery and pickup, which were up 6 percent and 3 percent year-over-year, respectively. The ship-to-home category, however, dropped 9 percent year-over-year.

The survey also showed that more households are using two or more online grocery shopping methods (curbside pickup, delivery, ship-to-home), with 35 percent of monthly active users receiving orders through two or three different methods in April 2021, up nearly 3 percent year-over-year (and 20 percent from pre-pandemic August 2019).

“Online shopping has remained an attractive way to buy groceries for a sizable segment of the U.S.,” said David Bishop, partner, Brick Meets Click in the April survey press announcement. “Last year, retailers were in a race to meet the dramatic surge in demand. This year, it’s about executing a sound and sustainable strategy, with the imperative squarely on improving integration and implementation.”

The last part of Bishop’s statement is key. Grocery retailers have been investing heavily over the past year in systems to encourage and improve curbside pickup and delivery. Walmart is adding automated fulfillment and pickup kiosks, Albertsons is expanding the use of pickup lockers and testing delivery robots, while Amazon is expanding delivery inside your garage while you’re out. All of this investment, however, is predicated on the notion that people will continue to shop for groceries online after the pandemic recedes. It’s still too early to tell, but we’re eager to see what Brick Meets Click/Mercatus reveals throughout the year.

Survey: Online Grocery Sales Back up to $9.3B in March, Pickup Remains Dominant

Online grocery sales were back up in March, following a drop in February, according to new data released today by Brick Meets Click/Mercatus. Grocery e-commerce in the U.S. hit $9.3 billion in sales (the same as January), with more than 69 million households placing an average of 2.8 orders in March.

Brick Meets Click also highlighted the continued dominance of curbside pickup as the main preference for online grocery shoppers. From the Brick Meets Click press announcement:

“Over the last 12 months, consumers’ dramatic shift to online grocery shopping has solidified, with curbside pickup attracting the largest share of monthly shoppers at 53% compared to ship-to-home and delivery,” said Sylvain Perrier, president and CEO, Mercatus. “In fact, pickup continues to have stronger consumer demand across all market types compared to delivery. Those brick-and-mortar chains that have invested in optimizing pickup services likely will continue to benefit from the high repeat intent rate as indicated in the data.”

The dominance of curbside pickup can be partly attributed to the fact that big retailers have invested so much in it. From expanded drive-up options to smart lockers to automated curbside pickup kiosks, retailers have increased the availability and convenience of curbside options.

One area of online grocery shopping that saw a drop from the same time last year was the ship-to-home category, which lost 27 percent of its monthly users. In addition to local retailer pickup and delivery options becoming more robust, the first wave of the pandemic last year saw a lot of panic buying and inventory outages. As such, people turned to whatever outlet they could find to get food delivered to their homes including CSAs and online meat providers.

Of course, the question we’ve been asking for a few months now is what does the future look like for online grocery? More people are fully vaccinated and able to return to a (relatively) normal life outside of their homes. Have their pandemic-induced behaviors changed for good when it comes to grocery shopping? Or do they miss roaming the aisles. The real numbers to watch will probably be the stats from May when the two week wait times after being vaccinated really start to kick in.

U.S. Online Grocery Sales Hit $9.3 Billion in January

Total grocery e-commerce sales in the U.S. hit $9.3 billion this past January, with nearly 70 million households placing an average of 2.8 orders across delivery, pickup and ship-to-home categories, according to a new Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey.

January’s $9.3 billion in sales is up 15 percent over November 2020, and Brick Meets Click credits a large part of this growth to a 16 percent increase in the number of households that buy groceries online.

Among the survey’s findings:

  • Seventy-seven percent of all online grocery spending went to delivery and pickup.
  • Seventy-eight percent of households engaged with a delivery or pickup service (up from 64 percent in November).
  • Ship-to-home usage rate dropped from 56 percent to 46 percent during the same period.
  • Despite growth in other areas, the overall usage rate in January fell short of the record 76.7 million households that shopped online in April 2020 (at the height of the pandemic’s first wave).

Pickup and delivery’s share of orders grew roughly six percent from November, accounting for 66 percent of all online orders completed during January 2021.

While online grocery saw a lot of gains over the past few months, the overall satisfaction metric (the likelihood of using a specific service again) with online grocery dropped to 56 percent, down 32 percentage point from the record high ratings level in November. Pickup had the biggest drop, losing 35 percentage points.

“Even though many grocers remain capacity constrained – especially with pickup – others are growing market share as they staff up or expand pickup to a larger store base,” David Bishop, partner, Brick Meets Click said in today’s press announcement. “While throwing more labor at the issue isn’t ideal, this, along with improving assembling productivities via enhanced pick and pack practices, is vital to remaining competitive in the near term and not inadvertently giving your customer a reason to shop elsewhere.”

As a grocery industry watcher, it’s always fun when these types of market numbers come out to see if and how people are adopting online grocery. But these numbers are also important because grocer retailers are currently investing a lot of money in systems and infrastructure to fulfill online grocery orders. Ahold Delhaize and Walmart recently announced expanded automated fulfillment centers for their stores, and Kroger will start opening its automated customer fulfillment centers this year.

As vaccines arrive and the pandemic recedes (knocks on wood), the question will be how much people’s habits have changed thanks to COVID, and for how many online grocery shopping will become the new normal.

Survey: Online Grocery Falls in August, Though Majority Will Continue E-Shopping

What goes up must come down, especially, in this case, when people feel safe enough to go out. New survey data from Brick Meets Click/Mercatus shows that U.S. grocery delivery and pickup sales for August dropped to $5.7 billion, down from June’s record high of $7.2 billion.

This pullback in online grocery isn’t a huge surprise. Between March and June of this year, online grocery shopping had seen one record month after another, but that growth was artificially inflated, fueled by the pandemic.

According to Brick Meets Click, the fall in online grocery dollars correlates with increased ease about COVID-19, with 38 percent of U.S. households expressing high levels of concern about the virus in August versus the high of 47 percent in April.

“There is a common belief that the rapid and dramatic surge in sales caused by COVID-19, starting in mid-March, would recede at some point as stay-at-home orders and in-store shopping restrictions like occupancy limits, shortened hours and one-way aisles were relaxed,” David Bishop, a partner at Brick Meets Click, said in a press release announcing the August results. “While the August results reflect a retrenchment of sorts, the market appears positioned to begin a new growth cycle with a large base of committed shoppers.”

This larger base is actually good news for those investing in online grocery services. Brick Meets Click said that roughly 37.5 million, or 29 percent of all U.S. households, are monthly active users of grocery delivery and pickup. That’s an increase of 133 percent over August of 2019, when that number was just 16.1 million.

August wasn’t without its own record setting, however. Brick Meets Click found that spending per order hit a record $95 in August, up 32 over a year ago. Active shoppers placed 1.6 orders per month versus 1.0 orders during the same time last year.

Additionally, more people are developing new online grocery shopping habits. According to the survey, 75 percent of customers said they are “extremely or very likely” to online grocery shop through their retailer again within the next 30 days. This desire to continue shopping online, said Brick Meets Click, was likely because of improved online shopping experiences.

Considering that people have been living under pandemic conditions for half a year (!) now, new habits have definitely set in. One thing to look for is the change in the weather. Now that people have experienced online grocery shopping, will they return to it when the weather outside is frightful (and delivery and pickup can be so delightful)?

Online Grocery Sales Climbed to $7.2 Billion in June

U.S. grocery e-commerce sales continued to break records as they hit $7.2 billion in June, up 9 percent from May (which saw $6.6 billion in sales), according to a new Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery survey announced today.

The survey, conducted between June 24 – 25, also found that 45.6 million households used delivery and curbside pickup for a larger portion of their grocery needs, and order frequency grew to 1.9 orders per month, up from 1.7 in May.

Online grocery shopping has had a big year, spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic and people sheltering in place. I was particularly interested to see what the June numbers would bring, as many states relaxed their lockdowns restrictions. However, despite re-openings, the coronavirus still loomed large over people’s shopping in June. From the Brick Meet Clicks press announcement:

In June, 44% of all households reported high levels of concern about someone in their household contracting COVID-19, up two percentage points from the previous month. The increase was almost entirely driven by a 9% increase among shoppers in the over-60 age segment since May.

Brick Meets Click noted that retailers of all sizes have been aggressive in expanding capacity to meet the demand for all this increased e-commerce. Anecdotally speaking, I’ve seen this play out where I live, as grocery stores big and small have both launched new online ordering platforms and carved out more space in the parking lot to fulfill pickup orders.

Will record-setting grocery e-commerce continue into the summer? There’s a good chance it will as the pandemic shows no signs of slowing down and restaurants are forced to shut down again. With three full months of pandemic quarantining in place, new habits have definitely formed. And all the confusion around opening/closing/partial opening, people could just force people to throw their hands in the air and stick with online grocery shopping for the rest of the year.

Online Grocery Sales Hit $5.3 Billion in April, Up 37 Percent from March

April was a record-setting month for U.S. online grocery sales, which reached $5.3 billion, according to new research released by Brick Meets Click and Symphony RetailAI earlier this week (tip of the hat to Grocery Dive). This represents a 37 percent growth over March, which was its own record month with $4.0 billion in sales.

The Brick Meet Click survey found that over the last 30 days, 40 million people shopped for groceries online (up from 39.5 million in March), with the total number of orders hitting 62.5 million in April (up from 46.9 million in March), and a slight increase in spending per order at $85 in April (up from $82 in March). Consider, for comparison, that a Gallup survey in August of last year showed that only 11 percent of respondents shopped for groceries online once a month.

All of this record-setting action, of course, is driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter-in-place orders enacted across the country starting in March. This isolation and social distancing spurred droves of people online to shop for groceries to be either picked up curbside or delivered.

Among the motivating factors for grocery e-commerce was fear. Brick Meets Click found that 47 percent of households surveyed had a “high level” of concerns about catching the novel coronavirus. This echoes a recent survey from C+R Research that found 60 percent of respondents were “fearful” of actually shopping at the grocery store.

These record months of online grocery shopping have put a tremendous strain on the grocer retail infrastructure. Amazon, Walmart, Kroger Instacart and others have all ramped up hiring and added additional measures to try and keep up with the sudden uptick in demand.

But despite two record months in a row, there are bigger, more existential troubling signs on the horizon. In addition to all the boomtown data Brick Meets Click found, its survey also gave us a sobering glimpse at the economic hardship data that lags behind the big sales numbers: 39 percent of surveyed households indicated that their monthly income has dropped 25 percent or more since January and February of this year. Less household money, sadly, means less spent at the grocery store.

Though grocery stores have remained opened during this pandemic, some states are starting to ease their shelter-in-place restrictions. We look forward to seeing Brick Meets Click’s May scorecard to see if and how online grocery shopping behavior has changed.