US eGrocery Sales Trends with Brick Meets Click – December 2022 Insights

Overview

In December 2022, the US online grocery market saw a record-high $9.1 billion in total sales, a 2.4% increase from the previous year, and a whopping 18% from November 2022. December total sales marks only a 2% variance from the record high reported at the start of 2021, during the Pandemic.

The year-over-year increase in total sales was driven by a surge in online grocery purchases by households and a slight increase in average order values, although these values still lagged behind grocery price inflation. This growth was partially offset by a decrease in order frequency among monthly active users.

In December, pickup was the only format to see an increase in sales, with a 14.7% growth. Delivery and ship-to-home orders both declined, with delivery down 1.8% and ship-to-home down 16.2%.

Mass retailers, such as Walmart, continued to significantly contribute to the growth of online grocery sales compared to traditional grocery stores. In Dec 2022, Mass saw a drastic YoY increase of nearly 20% in monthly active users, which was 3x higher than Grocery’s 7% improvement. This was driven by 49 percent of MAUs shopping with mass in the month, compared to 43% in 2021.

Another important trend from December, the amount of consumers that cross-shopped at both Grocery and Mass remained high at over 30%, a 1.3% increase from the previous year. Further, overall repeat shopping intent rates declined to 56.2%, down 6.7% from 2021. Although, Mass and Grocery both experienced a shortfall from prior year, Mass outperformed Grocery in this metric by over 10%.

In the month, online grocery sales saw a 7% decline in order frequency compared to the previous year. Ship-to-home orders saw a particularly steep decline with a 2x drop, while delivery orders also declined, although not as much. Pickup orders were the only type of online grocery format to see an increase in order frequency. Order frequency among traditional Grocery stores declined by 7% while order frequency among Mass retailers increased by 3% compared to the previous year.

In December 2022, average order values for all types of online grocery formats increased by about 6%, although this was lower than grocery price inflation. Pickup orders saw a higher average order value than the overall average, while delivery orders were in line with the average and ship-to-home orders saw a mid-single digit decline in spending compared to the previous year. Traditional Grocery stores saw a 4% increase in average order value, while Mass retailers saw a 3x greater increase.

Finally, total grocery spending in the last week of December saw a nearly 15% increase, causing the share of grocery spending going online to fall slightly to 13.2%. Excluding ship-to-home orders, which most conventional supermarkets do not offer, pickup and delivery orders accounted for 11.0% of total grocery spending for the month.

Want more insights? Make sure to read the complete press release here.