Are grocery shoppers ready for drones?

Consumers show interest in grocery drone delivery.

Consumers are frustrated with the grocery shopping experience and drone delivery may solve some of their pain points.

In a recent poll of 5,000 U.S. adult consumers conducted by Wing, the on-demand drone delivery provider powered by Google’s parent company Alphabet, 64% of respondents said they spend an hour or more shopping for groceries in-store and/or online each week and 62% have to make “boomerang” trips to return to the supermarket to purchase items they initially missed.

The biggest pain points for in-store grocery shoppers are crowds (45%), long lines (20%) and unavailable products (17%). The biggest pain points for respondents when getting groceries delivered are expensive pricing (37%) and unavailable products (20%).

An opening for drones?

The survey examined respondent attitudes toward grocery delivery more closely. Half of respondents overall receive grocery delivery once per week or more, including 61% of Gen Z and millennial respondents.

Eight-in-10 (81%) respondents would like the option to receive delivery of online grocery orders within 30 minutes or less, and 84% expect same-day delivery. Three-in-10 expect online grocery delivery within an hour.

Close to six-in-10 (58%) respondents said they would be likely or very likely to use drone delivery if it were available in their community, including 44% of respondents who never use online grocery delivery.

In addition, three-in-four (76%) respondents are willing to pay if grocery orders are delivered within 30 minutes. Eighty-three percent of Gen Z respondents are willing to pay — and spend more — on 30-minute delivery. That’s a higher share than any other generation.

Wing surveyed 5,000 online shoppers in July 2024, composed of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults aged 18-54-plus.

Online grocery sales, delivery surge

According to the Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopper Survey fielded Aug. 30-31, the U.S. online grocery market ended the month with $9.9 billion in sales, a 7% increase over last year as all three fulfillment methods tracked by the survey posted year-over-year sales growth.

Delivery increased 10.2% year-over-year to $3.9 billion. Ship-to-home grew 8.9% year-over-year in August to $1.8 billion, driven by significantly higher average order values. Pickup finished the month up 3.5% year-over-year to $4.3 billion.