Online grocery sales fell again in June, but top trends are firming up
U.S. consumers bought $6.8 billion worth of groceries online in June, according to the latest monthly survey from Brick Meets Click and Mercatus. That’s a 23% decline from the same period last year and down 3% compared to May 2021.
In all, 63.5 million U.S. households bought groceries online during the month, a 12% drop from June 2020. Pickup and delivery sales accounted for $5.3 billion, while ship-to-home sales accounted for $1.5 billion, according to the survey conducted June 27 to 28.
E-commerce sales are continuing to decline as expected, but notable trends stand out in the report, including pickup’s continued rise in popularity and the emergence of mass retail as a top competitor for grocers.
Although monthly e-commerce sales continue to fall both sequentially and year-over-year, top trends are starting to firm up among the millions of consumers still shopping for groceries online, including the channel’s most active users.
It’s no secret, for one, that pickup has been popular among these shoppers, but the latest figures from Brick Meets Click and Mercatus show a surprisingly steep rise continuing for the service. Among active users, the share of orders received through pickup grew nearly seven points year-over-year to 42%, while the share of delivery and ship-to-home orders dropped two and four points, respectively. For June, around one-third of active online users relied on pickup exclusively for online grocery orders, compared to 16% who only used delivery.
The overall usage rate for pickup in June was almost five percentage points higher than last year and more than 23 points higher than Aug. 2019. The service also had the highest usage across all geographic markets covered in the survey, including large metropolitan areas.
In emailed comments, David Bishop, partner with Brick Meets Click, said pickup’s growing popularity in areas like large metros underscores the need to invest in innovation, better service and other improvements.
“This shift will continue for a range of factors, which means that you not only need to offer pickup but that you must improve the service,” he wrote.
