CHICAGO – The leading grocery retailers have been playing a game of one-upmanship when it comes to raising the bar on online ordering convenience. From offering grocery delivery to-your-door to same-day delivery through a variety of service modes, like drive-up pick-up, grocers are making shopping easier and an increasing number of consumers are responding. The percentage of U.S. consumers, ages 18 and above, who shopped online for groceries within a 30-day period, whether for delivery or pick-up in store, increased from 17 percent in the quarter ending November 2018 to 20 percent, or about 51 million consumers, in the quarter ending February 2019, reports The NPD Group.
Of those who shop online for groceries from brick and mortar or pure-play online grocers, 16 percent order their food and beverages for delivery. The option to order online and pick-up in store, also known as click-and-collect or BOPUS (buy online pickup in store) is favored by 11 percent of online grocery shoppers. Seven percent of these shoppers mix it up and do both, according to NPD’s National Eating Trends® Omnichannel Scorecard.
Delivery was the mode of choice for 16 percent of consumers who order groceries online. A behavior most developed among urban consumers with suburbanites coming in second and rural grocery shoppers third. The click-and-collect/BOPUS shopping behavior skews to adults, ages 18-44; households with kids; and urban shoppers, who show a higher rate for this behavior than other shoppers overall, suburban shoppers show an average rate, and rural households are under-developed.
“Digital purchasing will accelerate in food retailing, just as it has in other retail sectors where we see much higher rates of online purchases,” says David Portalatin, NPD’s food industry advisor and author of Eating Patterns in America. “Still, the brick and mortar grocery store will always be a necessary means of acquiring foods, especially those where consumers place a premium on their sensory assessment to ensure quality, like meats, fruits and vegetables. This gives forward thinking retailers and their vendor partners an opportunity to truly create an omnichannel experience for the consumer and revolutionize the way we think about grocery merchandising.”
About The NPD Group
NPD offers data, industry expertise, and prescriptive analytics to help our clients grow their businesses in a changing world. Over 2000 companies worldwide rely on us to help them measure, predict, and improve performance across all channels, including brick-and-mortar and e-commerce. We have offices in 27 cities worldwide, with operations spanning the Americas, Europe, and APAC. Practice areas include apparel, appliances, automotive, beauty, books, B2B technology, consumer technology, e-commerce, fashion accessories, food consumption, foodservice, footwear, home, juvenile products, media entertainment, mobile, office supplies, retail, sports, toys, travel retail, video games, and watches/jewelry. For more information, visit npd.com. Follow us on Twitter: @npdgroup.
About NPD’s Food Sector
NPD is the only research company to continuously track and have a full view of what individuals actually eat and drink in- and away-from-home. We are the definitive source of information and insights for all aspects of food and beverage consumption and consumer use of restaurants and foodservice outlets. We can track the same foodservice consumer over time to gain actionable insights. In addition, we track actual sales information on every product shipped from leading broadline distributors to each of their foodservice operators. Follow us on Twitter: @npdfood
