Online grocery spending continues as sales rise 31% in February
Online grocery sales saw a major hike in February compared to the same period last year.
According to the latest Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopper Survey, the U.S. online grocery segment jumped 31% versus last year, ending February 2025 with $10.3 billion in monthly sales, and more than 80 million households placed one or more online orders during the month, a record high.
February marked the seventh straight period where monthly sales exceeded $9.5 billion and the ninth consecutive period with positive year-over-year sales growth. In January, online grocery sales hit $10 billion, a 16.6% annual increase.
“We are a little more than a half year into eGrocery’s current growth curve, fueled by aggressive offers to lock in customers for at least 12 months,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click. “So far, the response from U.S. households reveals a sizable amount of latent demand that has been unlocked by offering discounts designed to help customers save more money on online grocery orders.”
According to February’s data, delivery continued to post extremely strong results for the month, growing more than 45% versus a year ago and registering $4.5 billion in sales. A surge in monthly active users (MAUs) was the predominant growth factor, driven mainly by the rapid expansion of users in the 60+ age group and a year-over-year rebound in penetration with 18 to 29-year-olds. Strong gains in order frequency and average order values (AOVs) also contributed to this robust performance, according to Brick Meets Click, allowing delivery to finish the month with nearly 44% of online grocery’s total sales.
Pickup reported very strong gains for February 2025, rising 19% versus last year, to approximately $4.1 billion in sales. Pickup’s MAU base and order frequency rate both grew year-over-year, but the primary driver of sales growth was a higher AOV. However, Brick Meets Clicks says that pickup’s AOV, MAU base, and order frequency all increased at slightly slower paces than delivery’s. Despite the monthly sales gain, pickup’s share of total online grocery sales fell 400 bps versus last year, closing February 2025 with just over 39%.
[READ MORE: Online grocery shopping gets strong feedback; consumers plan to increase spend]
Ship-to-home sales jumped nearly 29% in February versus the prior year as this method posted almost $1.8 billion in sales. Like delivery, ship-to-home’s annual gains were driven by an increase in MAUs, which Brick Meets Click says may have been fueled partly by the current in-store environment where various categories are merchandised behind locked plexiglass doors to prevent theft. While Ship-to-home order frequency and AOV also climbed versus last year, the gains were more muted than those for delivery. Overall, ship-to-home essentially maintained its 17% share position, ceding just 30 bps of share compared to a year ago.
Building on the strong results for each receiving segment, supermarket and mass retailers also had a positive February. Both posted year-over-year gains across the three core drivers of top-line sales: MAUs, order frequency and AOV.
In addition, the grocery (which includes supermarkets and hard discounters) and mass formats reported improvements in repeat intent rates related to delivery and pickup services with grocery closing most of its gap with mass. In fact, Brick Meets Click says the likelihood of reusing the same grocery or mass service again within the next month finished just 7% below the pre-COVID rate in February, setting a new post-COVID high that surpasses the record set in January 2025.
“Regional grocers are converting first-time shoppers into more loyal customers as evidenced by the rising repeat intent rates, but so is Walmart” said Mark Fairhurst, chief growth marketing officer at Mercatus. “While deep discounts have driven a lot of trial, making a good first impression is essential to longer-term success. That means providing a more seamless shopping experience by pairing relevant personalized offers, order fulfillment, and sought-after loyalty rewards to encourage customers to shop online again.”
Given online grocery’s strong sales growth of 31% compared to overall grocery spending, which rose less than 5% versus February 2024, online’s share of total grocery spending finished at almost 18%, jumping 370 bps versus last year.
Brick Meets Click conducted the most recent survey on Feb. 28 2025, with 1,698 adults, 18 years and older, who participated in the household’s grocery shopping, and a similar survey in February 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.
