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Delivery orders grew nearly 20% year over year in July, which Brick Meets Click and Mercatus attributed to both an increase in users as well as more frequent ordering by those users.

U.S. online grocery sales in July 2024 grew close to 10% year over year, according to new data from 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. The delivery segment gained the largest share of U.S. online grocery sales in July. Delivery also almost equaled the amount of pickup sales.

July online grocery sales in the U.S., Brick Meets Click and Mercatus survey data

Understanding the growth in online grocery delivery

Delivery orders grew nearly 20% year over year in July, which Brick Meets Click and Mercatus attributed to both an increase in users as well as more frequent ordering by those users.

Brick Meets Click and Mercatus attributed the delivery segment’s gains in part to efforts from major players to grow their delivery businesses in recent months — including Walmart and Instacart. Walmart offered a 50% discount on its Walmart+ membership in mid-July (to $49 from $98) after promoting the same deal in May. Instacart offered an 80% discount on its annual membership.

“Walmart and Instacart aren’t the only players using deep discounts to boost delivery demand,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click, in a statement. “Amazon, for example, in July offered a 90-day free Prime membership trial instead of the usual 30 days, along with unlimited grocery delivery. Similarly, DoorDash and Uber Eats are maintaining low or no delivery fees to increase their market share.”

Amazon is No. 1 and Walmart is No. 2 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of North America’s online retailers by web sales. Additionally, Amazon is No. 3 and Walmart is No. 9 in the Global Online Marketplaces Database, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the top marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV).

July online grocery sales in the US

Online grocery sales in July 2024 grew to $7.9 billion, from $7.2 billion in the same month in 2023.

Moreover, online grocery sales in July 2023 and 2024 were greater than those in June 2023 and 2024, respectively. It marks the third straight month that online grocery sales in the U.S. grew year over year.

Overall online grocery order volume in July 2024 grew about 5%, according to Brick Meets Click and Mercatus data. Despite pickup sales remaining flat year over year, order volume fell 3%.

Average order value increased the most among the Ship-to-Home segment, growing 4% year over year. AOV increased 3% year over year for the pickup segment and 2% for delivery. By store type, AOV for Mass Merchants‘ online grocery sales increased 3%, while they were flat for supermarkets.

Brick Meets Click and Mercatus analysis also found that households with annual incomes under $50,000 reported declines across three key metrics:

  1. Monthly average users
  2. Order frequency
  3. Average order value

This illustrated the impact of financial pressures on online buying behaviors, they said.

“Intense competition in grocery delivery promotions is eroding regional grocers’ control over customer interactions,” said Mark Fairhurst, chief growth officer at Mercatus, in a statement. “While third-party marketplaces may boost short-term order volume gains, they also make it harder for grocery retailers to achieve the economies of scale needed to reduce operating costs. I’m not sure many grocers would jump at the opportunity to put a farmer’s market in their store parking lot, yet many are willing to do something similar when it comes to relying on marketplaces for their online business.”

Read last month’s update here.

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