Online grocery sales in June 2024 grew in two of the three segments tracked in the monthly Brick Meets Click and Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey.

Brick Meets Click and Mercatus define the three receiving methods for online grocery sales as:

• Delivery: Includes orders received from a first- or third-party provider like Instacart, Shipt or the retailer’s own employees.
• Pickup: Includes orders received by customers either inside or outside a store or at a designated location/locker.
• Ship-to-home: Includes orders that are received via common or contract carriers like FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc.

Pickup, the largest segment by sales, remained flat year over year, but delivery and ship-to-home both grew.

“Delivery’s strong performance in June likely benefited from the promotional offers made last month, first by Instacart and then by Walmart,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click, in a statement. “These promotions focused on delivery and offered deep discounts on each service’s annual membership fees, which helped boost both MAUs [monthly average users] and order frequency for delivery and for Walmart.”

June 2024 data was based on a survey of 1,744 adults in the United States and a similar survey in June 2023 of 1,769 adults, Brick Meets Click said.

June online grocery sales

Online grocery sales in June 2024 grew compared to June 2023. They also grew compared to May 2024, which saw a year-over-year decline.

June online grocery sales hit $7.7 billion, according to Brick Meets Click and Mercatus. That’s an 8.0% increase from $7.1 billion in June 2023.

Online grocery delivery sales grew to $2.9 billion in June 2024. That’s up 18% from $2.5 billion in the prior-year period.

Similarly, ship-to-home sales grew to $1.3 billion in June 2024. That’s a nearly 10% increase from $1.2 billion in June 2023. That marked the fourth straight month of year-over-year sales gains for the segment. Brick Meets Click and Mercatus attributed that growth to an increase in average order value (AOV) despite a 1% reduction in MAUs and a decline in order frequency.

Impact of Mass Merchants on monthly online grocery sales

The overall online grocery MAU base grew nearly 4% year over year in June, driven almost entirely by reactivating lapsed users, Brick Meets Click and Mercatus said. The increase in customers in June 2024 is largely due to less-frequent users making another order or lapsed customers who are giving the service another chance, they said.

Nearly a third of customers bought online from both grocery stores and Mass Merchants — such as Walmart, Target or Costco — Brick Meets Click and Mercatus data showed. In June, 31.6% of online grocery store shoppers also received an online grocery order from a Mass Merchant. More specifically, the share of online grocery store shoppers who also ordered groceries online from Walmart reached 22%.

Walmart, Target and Costco each rank in the top 10 within Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 Database. The database ranks North America’s leading online retailers by their web sales.

In terms of where surveyed households report buying most of their groceries, whether in-store or online, Mass Merchants expanded their share to 42% in June 2024. Meanwhile, supermarket operators’ share dipped to 39%.

“Regional grocers need to stem the tide and regain market share by leveling the playing field against Mass Merchants, despite these rivals having a price advantage,” said Mark Fairhurst, chief growth officer at Mercatus, in a statement. “Integrating personalized and targeted promotions into their first-party platform experience will be key to re-engaging lapsed customers and improving repeat purchase rates. Additionally, incorporating high-level, in-store customer service into the digital experience — a strength that regionals are known for — will be crucial and can give them an advantage over their mass [merchant] competitors.”

Read last month’s update here.

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