Online grocery sales have grown over 15% on a year-over-year basis in 2019, thus far, and now account for 6.3% of total grocery-related spending by households in the United States, according to a U.S. e-grocery market report by Brick Meets Click, Barrington, Ill.

Several factors driving growth of the U.S. online grocery market in 2019 entail:

·        Household penetration, based on past month shopping activity, rose more than five percentage points over the last year to nearly 25% of all U.S. households. This gain is largely the result of aggressive expansion of home delivery and pickup services available at brick-and-mortar stores, which collectively are now accessible to 90% of all the households in the United States – up from 81% in 2018.

·        Average order values, encompassing ship-to-home, home delivery and pickup orders, climbed over 6% to $70 in 2019. When only analyzing home delivery and pickup orders across various retail trade channels, the average order value grew 13% to just over $100.

·        Online purchase frequency for groceries remains relatively unchanged vs. last year, averaging two orders during the past month for active online grocery customers. Ship-to-home orders accounts for 50% of all online grocery orders while pickup captures 28% and home delivery 22% of the orders respectively.

“There’s still a fair amount of purchase trial occurring, as consumers search for acceptable online shopping alternatives,” says David Bishop, partner. “For example, we found that approximately one-third of the active households’ most recent online order was the first time they used the service.”

According to the analysis, online providers are improving the shopping experience as the likelihood to use a specific service again jumped from 69% in 2018 to 81% this year. Improving the ability to find the products that a customer wants to purchase is a key factor, and the percentage of customers who found everything they wanted to buy rose to 90% in 2019, a 12 percentage point-gain vs. last year.