April Online Grocery Sales Increase Nearly 1% Year-Over-Year

Overall online grocery sales for April 2023 totaled $8.2 billion, up 0.9% compared to a year ago, according to the latest Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey.

Fielded April 28-29, the monthly report showed that delivery sales jumped 20%, pickup dipped 3% and ship-to-home fell by 19%. Strong gains for delivery during April 2023 were driven by a rebound in monthly active users (MAUs) and a higher average order value (AOV). Delivery’s MAU base grew 11% versus the prior year, but finished at only 1% on a two-year basis versus 2021 as the segment’s customer base fell 9% last year.

Brick Meets Click/Mercatus found that April’s decline in pickup sales was largely the result of lower order frequency and a reduced AOV, which was offset somewhat by moderate growth in its MAU base. The decline for ship-to-home sales, according to the report, was the result of a decrease across all key shopping metrics, including continued shrinking of its MAU base along with double-digit drops in both AOV and order frequency among active users.  

“A macro view of the eGrocery market can reveal certain opportunity gaps, but it may also obscure key shopping dynamics within a particular segment of the market,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click. “For example, it’s difficult to see how little overlap exists between the households that use pickup and those that use delivery services or to know that pickup grew stronger in mass during April unless you’re able to dig deeper into the segment dynamics as we do in our monthly reports.”

Online’s share of total grocery spending decreased in April, falling 20 basis points to 12.1% versus 2022. Excluding ship-to-home, since most conventional supermarkets don’t offer it, the adjusted contribution from pickup and delivery finished at 10.0%, up 40 basis points compared to a year ago because of delivery’s strong performance for the month.