Report: Discount grocers gain online market share in 2022

Supermarkets lost 2 percentage points of their portion of the online sales market in 2022 compared to the previous year, according to a new analysis by data research company Brick Meets Click.  

The report “Profiling the Online Shopper: eGrocery Purchase Patterns in the U.S.”, sponsored by digital commerce provider Mercatus, also revealed that during the same time period, the pool of digital grocery shoppers grew by 3 percentage points.   

On average, more than half of U.S. households purchased groceries online in 2022, but only about a third of those consumers made their purchases through online grocers, the analysis found.

“These findings provide evidence that can support recommending refinements to how supermarkets compete online—especially against the lower-priced leaders in the market,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click. 

The report noted that the changes in online shopping preferences are driven by inflation for both low-income and affluent consumers. Those earning under $50,000 annually—this represented more than a third of U.S. households in 2022—were 25% more likely to do their online shopping at Walmart. The reach of supermarkets for this demographic dropped 1.5 percentage points in 2022 compared to the previous year, while Walmart saw its share of that “flight to value” market grow by 2.1 percentage points for the period.  

The households earning under $50,000 made up roughly 30% of the online supermarket customers and 40% of the customer base for Walmart and other “hard discounters” like Aldi, the report noted. Meanwhile, those families making more than $200,000—roughly 10% of all households—were almost three times as likely to conduct their online shopping at a supermarket for the year. Walmart did expand its reach with this demographic, though, growing it by 2.1 percentage points.  

Those households making more than $200,000 are a key demographic for grocers because they spent an average of 80% more online than their counterparts earning under $50,000, according to the report. That high-income spending represented more than 20% of supermarket sales online for the year.   

“Customers who shop with supermarkets tend to do so because of the quality of products they can receive, rather than paying the lowest price,” said Sylvain Perrier, president and CEO of Mercatus, in a statement. “So, identifying and improving aspects of the online shopping experience that matter more to the quality-conscious customer can help increase competitiveness in ways that are not focused solely on price.”