Trendspotting: Online grocery sales trends mirror those in-store
Trendspotting: Online grocery sales trends mirror those in-store
For those keeping score (and I know you are), last week this space addressed the fact that younger shoppers don’t always visit the traditional supermarket to fulfill the grocery needs. Not surprisingly, online grocery shopping habits mirror in-store behaviors.
According to the latest Brick Meets Click Grocery Shopper Survey sponsored by Mercatus, this June, the share of households that indicated Walmart was their primary grocery store during the month rose by nearly a full percentage point; at the same time, hard discounters, like Aldi, gained almost one-and-a-half points while supermarkets lost over two points.
When it comes to shopping online for groceries, supermarkets continue to face escalating competition from Walmart. One in four households that ordered online from a supermarket service also did so with Walmart during June 2025, according to the report.
Overall, online grocery sales totaled $9.8 billion for June 2025, a 27.6 percent increase compared to last year, all three receiving methods (delivery, pickup and ship-to-home) contributed to the continued surge in monthly results as each posted dollar sales gains of 25 percent or more for the month. Meanwhile, in-store grocery sales slipped during June due to a combination of the surge in online sales and shifts in where households primarily buy their groceries.
Delivery’s 29 percent year-over-over growth in monthly sales, which totaled $3.8 billion in June, was due largely to strong growth in its monthly active user (MAU) base, coupled with gains in order frequency and average order value (AOV). Pickup sales jumped nearly 25 percent to $4.3 billion, driven by solid increases in its MAU base, order frequency, and AOV versus last year. Ship-to-Home’s sales surged nearly 33 percent to $1.7 billion as its MAU base expanded even faster than Delivery’s, and its order frequency also spiked significantly higher than June 2024.
“June’s strong results signal that this sustained surge in eGrocery sales, particularly in Delivery, is likely to continue because delivery is now effectively free for many users,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click. “This evolving dynamic leverages membership and subscription programs to eliminate one of the top historical barriers to using an eGrocery delivery service.”
While eGrocery posted another month of exceptional results, overall grocery spending per household during the final week of June 2025 rose only 2.5 percent versus last year. Excluding online sales, this suggests that in-store grocery sales across all retail formats declined versus June 2024.
Relative to building greater engagement with their respective MAU bases, grocery (which includes supermarkets and hard discount) closed about half of its repeat intent gap behind mass retailers in June. Although grocery reported stronger YOY improvements on this measure for both delivery and pickup, respectively, mass maintains a more than 10-point advantage in delivery, as mass retailers like Walmart continue to attract new online customers who primarily buy groceries at a grocery banner.
“If you’re a regional grocer, these results should be a wake-up call: Take control of your customer data and put it to work to stay competitive,” said Mark Fairhurst, chief growth marketing officer for Mercatus.
“A year of aggressive delivery promotions and a sharp rise in cross-shopping between supermarkets and Walmart highlight the urgent need to defend your customer base on every channel by owning the relationship at each touchpoint and building a smarter, more connected experience to drive growth and stay relevant,” said Fairhurst.
