North American delivery platforms drive online grocery growth, up 57% year-on-year

Chicory conducted the fifth iteration of its online grocery shopping survey among 582 consumers in January 2021.

According to a new consumer survey by digital marketing platform Chicory, the number of users of Shipt, Target's online grocery delivery platform, increased 57% year-on-year in January 2021. Its rival delivery platform Instacart followed closely behind with an annual growth rate of 48%.

While the pandemic has made shopping more difficult for consumers , no other online grocery store has as many users as Shipt or Instacart, but they do have more consumers participating in the segment. Stop & Shop/Giant Foods had the second-highest year-over-year user growth (27%), followed by Kroger (24%), Amazon (9%), Albertsons/Safeway (8%) and Walmart (0.5%).

According to Chicory, online grocery usage in January 2021 was 9 % , 15% , and 10% higher than usage in October , July, and April 2020, respectively . Walmart (used by 56% of respondents) and Amazon (36%) remain the leaders in online grocery.

65% of respondents said they add to their online grocery shopping cart weekly or more frequently , and the proportion of consumers who order groceries online at least once a week increased by 26% year-on-year. Digital recipes and other online tools are used weekly or more frequently to plan in-store trips, and 19.11% use them every few weeks. 55% of respondents said they would retain the habit of online grocery shopping even after receiving the new crown vaccine .

Over the past year, more grocery customers have used curbside pickup or delivery services, which were once used as a temporary delivery method but are now a major part of grocers' business models.

United Supermarkets expects e-commerce to account for 10% to 12% of total revenue going forward as shoppers develop new habits during the pandemic.

Chief Operating Officer Chris James said these habits are here to stay: "I think a lot of people are trying e-commerce for the first time because of the pandemic and have decided to continue to run it, and they are able to get that convenience at zero cost. For our company, it's a little challenging because it's not very profitable for us because it requires more labor to help you bag all the groceries so you can pick them all up. For us, it's a labor investment."

North America

Delivery Platform

Online Grocery