Online grocery sales see nearly 18% year-over-year rise in November
The U.S. online grocery market saw large annual gains in November, led by an increase in monthly active users (MAU).
That’s according to the latest Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopper Survey which found that the market ended November 2024 with $9.6 billion in monthly sales, a 17.8% increase over last year as all three fulfillment methods posted year-over-year.
The overall MAU base, which includes households that used any of the three fulfillment methods during November 2024, increased 15%, the second strongest year-over-year percentage change since August 2021. The new record of 77.8 million households that bought groceries online in November 2024 broke the previous record high set during April 2020, the first full month of the COVID-19 pandemic. During November, 72% of overall MAUs used only one fulfillment method, up more than 400 basis points (bps) versus 2023.
[READ MORE: Online grocery sales hit record-setting $10.5 billion in October]
Delivery sales rose to $3.9 billion, up 22% compared to a year ago, accounting for 40.6% of all online grocery sales. An 8% increase in the MAU base and higher order activity led to the surge in sales, while the average order value (AOV) remained flat versus last year. Brick Meets Click says delivery results for November extend the segment’s strong growth trend that began in June 2024, fueled by waves of “deep-discounted offers on membership and subscription programs” from various retailers and providers which first started appearing in May.
Pickup reached $3.9 billion in sales, an 8% increase from November 2023, ending the month with 41.3% of all sales. A 9% expansion of pickup’s MAU base drove order volume gains despite a slight contraction in order frequency. AOV fell by about 4.5% compared to 2023 due mainly to a pullback among the youngest household group (18–29-year-olds).
Ship-to-home continued to reclaim lost share after hitting lows during 2022, as sales jumped to $1.7 billion in November, up more than 30% year-over-year to end the month with 18.1% of online sales. The MAU base for ship-to-home expanded at the fastest rate of all three fulfillment methods in November, increasing more than 11%. A slight increase in order frequency, combined with the rapid MAU growth, aided in generating a strong surge in order volume, said Brick Meets Click.
“Supermarkets experienced a significant surge in their MAU base, benefiting from widespread and deep discounts on membership and subscription programs offered by both national and regional grocers throughout November,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click. “And, while that’s a positive sign for supermarkets, the race to retain customers and grow share-of-wallet with them is only intensifying among rivals.”
The MAU base for mass increased by less than 1% as it lapped an extremely strong user growth in 2023, and it maintains the largest share of MAUs across the formats. Mass reported strong gains in order frequency as its MAUs (including all three methods) completed 9% more orders than last year. However, the combined AOV for delivery and pickup for mass decreased slightly in November while its AOV for ship-to-home posted double-digit gains.
Customer satisfaction with online grocery services increased in November as the overall repeat intent rate reached 65.2%, the highest score in the last four years and the third highest since the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020. Brick Meets Click says the gain was driven largely by a more than five percentage point increase in the share of MAUs who have completed four or more orders with a specific service within the last three months. More than 80% of this user group indicated that they are very/extremely likely to reuse the same service within the next month compared to under 30% in the first-time user group.
In terms of customer loyalty, supermarkets made gains with the households that rely on them as their primary grocery store. More than half (nearly 56%) of those households that were active online in November also ordered online from their primary store, almost a seven-percentage point gain versus last year. Despite the gains for supermarkets, households that rely on a mass retailer as their primary grocery store are at least 30% more likely to order groceries online from mass compared to supermarkets.
Brick Meets Click conducted the most recent survey on Nov. 29 - 30, 2024, with 1,704 adults, 18 years and older, who participated in the household’s grocery shopping, and a similar survey in November 2023. 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.
