U.S. grocery e-commerce sales grow 43%, reaching $9.3 billion

Online grocery sales in the U.S. rebounded in March after falling in February, according to new data released today by Brick Meets Click/Mercatus .

Grocery e-commerce sales in the U.S. reached $9.3 billion in March , a 43% increase compared to the $6.5 billion in sales a year ago . Online grocery sales in March were up 16.3% from $8 billion in February and tied January’s record high of $9.3 billion.

The data showed that more than 69 million households placed an average of 2.8 orders in March , up from 2.7 orders in February and 2.5 orders in March 2020 , and the order frequency increased by 12 % year-on-year . Pickup and delivery sales in March increased 16.4% month-on-month to US$7.1 billion.

Brick Meets Click also highlighted the continued dominance of curbside pickup, a key preference among online grocery shoppers.

"The dramatic consumer shift toward online shopping has solidified over the past 12 months, with curbside pickup attracting the largest share of monthly shoppers at 53% compared to home delivery and delivery, " said Sylvain Perrier, president and CEO of Mercatus . " In fact, curbside pickup has stronger consumer demand than delivery across all market types. The data suggests that brick-and-mortar chains that have invested in optimizing their pickup services are likely to continue to benefit from high repeat rates. "

Part of the reason why curbside pickup is so dominant can be attributed to the large retailers investing heavily in it. From expanded drive-up options to smart lockers to automated curbside pickup kiosks, retailers have increased the availability and convenience of curbside pickup options.

One area of ​​online grocery shopping that saw a decline compared to the same period last year was home delivery, which saw a 27% drop in monthly users .

As more and more people are fully vaccinated and return to normal life, will consumers continue to choose to buy groceries online or in-store? A survey shows that the penetration rate of e-commerce continues to increase, and consumers have become dependent on this channel, and this trend of gradually turning to online shopping will continue.

USA

Grocery e-commerce

Sales