Consumer Behavior
US online grocery sales up 43% over 2020
May 4, 2021
The pandemic is clearly benefiting the online grocery segment with total U.S. sales for March 2021 up 43% compared to a year ago.
The U.S. online grocery market finished March with $9.3 billion in sales, a return to January's record spending levels, as over 69 million households placed an average of 2.8 online orders during the month, according to the Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey, sponsored by Mercatus and conducted by Brick Meets Click.
"A year since COVID-19 changed how we live, work and shop, online grocery demonstrates continued strength and impressive staying power," David Bishop, partner, Brick Meets Click, said in a press release on the findings. "The monthly active user base remains robust, average order values are at similarly elevated levels and order frequency has gone up."
"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," Sylvain Perrier, Mercatus president and CEO, said in the release. "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."
