Online grocery sales up 21% in March
Online grocery sales are continuing to climb monthly.
The U.S. online grocery segment saw sales increase 21% in March versus a year ago, reaching $9.7 billion, according to the latest Brick Meets Click Grocery Shopper Survey fielded March 30-31, 2025, and sponsored by Mercatus. Delivery continued to be the main driver of the topline increase, as it grew more than 30% compared to March 2024 due to expansion of its monthly active user (MAU) base. March 2025 represented the 8th consecutive month of sales of over $9.5 billion.
“Delivery’s remarkable year-over-year rebound highlights the potency of promotional strategies that help customers save more money,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click. “And, memberships/subscriptions are becoming essential for retaining customers and driving more recurring revenue via gains in order frequency and average order values.”
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The month also marked five years since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, which profoundly reshaped the grocery market, according to Brick Meets Click. In August 2019, online grocery sales rang up $2.0 billion in monthly sales in the U.S. Seven months later, in March 2020, sales skyrocketed to $6.5 billion, a more than 200% increase.
This initial surge accounted for about 60% of the total gains for online grocery since the pandemic. After peaking in early 2021, total sales rebalanced through mid-2024, contributing another 20% of overall gains. More recently, there has been another 20% in gains driven by the uptick in subscriptions and memberships promotions.
Beyond the large increase in sales, online grocery has also experienced a significant shift in consumer demand by receiving methods. Prior to the pandemic, ship-to-home dominated, capturing 42% of all online sales, but it accounted for only approximately 18% in March 2025. It currently trails the other two methods by a significant gap. Delivery has increased from a 26% share in 2019 to a 43% share today, and pickup has climbed from 32% to almost 39%.
In addition, more households are now likely to use multiple methods to receive their online orders during the month. Before the pandemic, 85% of MAUs used only one method during the month to get online orders, then, starting in March 2020 that share dropped to around 70% and has remained fairly consistent since then as the remaining households use multiple methods (some combination of pickup, delivery and/or ship-to-home).
Overall, Brick Meets Click says the pandemic motivated more households to try online grocery shopping. The share of U.S. households buying groceries online jumped from under 25% before COVID-19 to 57% in March 2020, and while it has gone as high as nearly 61% (February 2025), it ended March 2025 at 57% as well. At the same time, MAUs are now more active online as the number of monthly online grocery orders received has increased from 2.0 pre-pandemic to 2.6 as of March 2025.
“Customer expectations around online grocery have only increased since COVID-19 pushed many to give it a try,” said Mark Fairhurst, chief growth marketing officer at Mercatus. “Retailers that elevate the experience with relevant offers and meaningful rewards won’t just meet shoppers’ evolving needs – they’ll build stronger connections that fuel long-term growth.”
Brick Meets Click conducted the most recent survey on March 30-31, 2025, with 1,699 adults, 18 years and older, who participated in the household’s grocery shopping, and a similar survey in March 2024. Results are adjusted based on internet usage among U.S. adults to account for the non-response bias associated with online surveys. Responses are geographically representative of the U.S. and weighted by age to reflect the national population of adults, 18 years and older, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
