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Online grocery sales see 19% YOY growth spurt in DecemberOnline grocery sales see 19% YOY growth spurt in December
Discounts on memberships and subscriptions largely drove the $9.6 billion in sales last month
3 Min Read
December marks the fifth straight month of online grocery sales above $9.5 billion.Getty Images
December was a boom month for U.S. online grocery, with $9.6 billion in monthly sales, up 18.7% over last year.
Biggest news for grocery?
All three fulfillment methods posted year-over-year sales gains according to the Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopper Survey fielded December 30-31, 2024. December marks the fifth straight month of online grocery sales above $9.5 billion and caps off a year that essentially reflected two periods: before and after the appearance of discounted promotions on subscriptions and/or membership programs.
All three receiving methods reported similar shifts in their sales performance between the first and second half of the year:
Delivery’s growth rate increased from less than 4% in the first half of 2024 to more than 25% in the second half
Ship-to-home’s growth rate also jumped dramatically, increasing from 5% to approximately 20% between the two periods
Pickup, which declined 4% during the January-June period, posted a nearly 8% gain during the July-December 2024 period
What’s shifted?
Grocery operators continue to face increasing challenges to online growth, especially given the stiff competition from mass retailers. In terms of penetration, more than half of all monthly active users completed one or more online grocery orders with a mass retailer during December 2024, while only approximately one-third of all monthly active users completed at least one online order with a grocery operator. (Grocery includes both supermarket and hard discount formats within the report’s metrics.)
The biggest shift over the year, according to the report, has been the broad presence and aggressive promotion of annual subscriptions or memberships that began in mid-year and have continued off and on since then. Discounts, ranging from 33% to 80% off, were seen from a variety of marketplace providers, mass retailers, plus national and regional supermarkets as well.
In their own words
“While subscriptions and memberships aren’t new, the deep discounts were new, and they resonated with customers by offering the opportunity for significant savings. As a result, customers are more vested in their provider-of-choice, motivating many to place more orders.” —David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click
More detail
Overall online grocery sales during 1H24 were basically flat, posting only a 0.3% gain versus 1H23. But, during 2H24, online grocery sales surged 17.7% YOY, driving annual sales up 9.1% versus 2023
As for cross-shopping, one-third of grocery’s monthly active users base also completed an order with a mass retailer in the same month, jumping over 800 bps in December 2024 versus last year
When it comes to the likelihood that a customer will use the same service again within the next 30 days, mass continues to post stronger repeat intent rates for both delivery and pickup services than grocery, although the gaps have narrowed versus last year, the report says
Looking at the monthly sales results for December 2024, each receiving method posted YOY gains, reversing the sales decline that all three reported in the prior year:
Delivery grew 24.6% YOY in December to $4 billion, accounting for 41.7% of total eGrocery sales, up from 39.8% last year
Pickup monthly sales climbed 5.3% YOY to $3.8 billion, as it ceded 500 basis points of share versus last year and finished with 39.4%
Ship-to-home sales surged nearly 40% YOY to $1.8 billion, contributing 18.9% of total online grocery sales, up from 15.9% in December 2023
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