DISCUSSION

Has online grocery shopping hit its sales ceiling?

Written by Tom Ryan
Coresight’s “U.S. Online Grocery Survey 2022” report found 54.3 percent of U.S. adults had purchased groceries online in the past 12 months, well above the 36.9 percent doing so in the pre-pandemic 2019 year but down from 59 percent in the 2021 survey. The study, as reported by Supermarket News, further found 46.9 percent plan to buy groceries online in the next 12 months, down from 49.5 percent who said so in Coresight’s 2021 survey. “The drop in intent to shop through e-commerce signifies that online grocery shopping has largely stabilized from its pandemic highs, albeit at higher levels than pre-pandemic times,” Coresight wrote in the study. On the positive side, the survey showed more consumers increasingly adopting online as their preferred buying method. Customers doing the bulk of their grocery shopping online grew to 28.3 percent (almost all/all, 11.8 percent; most, 16.5 percent) in Coresight’s 2022 survey. That compares to 24.7 percent (almost all/all, 10 percent; most, 14.7 percent) in 2021 and 14 percent (almost all/all, 4.3 percent; most, 9.7 percent) in 2020. “This indicates that the online channel now captures a meaningful share of full-basket grocery shoppers,” Coresight observed. A new survey from FMI found half of online food shoppers shop online every two weeks or more. In 2015, only seven percent reported ordering groceries online within the previous 30 days. Convenience and value, including avoiding in-store impulse purchases, were seen as big draws for online grocery shopping. Sixty-two percent of online-reliant shoppers believe online shopping saves more time than in-person shopping, while 40 percent say online is better than in-person at helping them discover new products. Still, 43 percent of grocery shoppers in FMI’s survey believe they get better quality products when they shop in-store, as opposed to just 17 percent who believe the same about online shopping. Even those who shop online at least some of the time said that 70 percent of their grocery trips are done in-person.

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