One in Three Consumers Expects to Step up eGrocery Use

Online grocery adoption may have a long way to go, but many consumers are ready to up their digital engagement, according to PYMNTS research.

By the Numbers

Research from “Tracking the Digital Payments Takeover: Catching the Coming eCommerce Wave,” created in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which drew from an April survey of nearly 2,700 U.S. consumers, revealed that 32% of shoppers said they are very or extremely likely to increase their online grocery purchases in the next year.

As it stands, the study found, only 12% of grocery transactions occur online — 6% via mobile devices and 6% via computers.

The Data in Action

Grocers are noting eCommerce growth. Take, for instance, Kroger, the United States’ leading pure-play grocer, which shared on its most recent earnings call in March that it is seeing its digital growth outpace other channels, expecting further adoption going forward.

“We have built a digital platform that offers a seamless shopping experience with zero compromise, allowing customers to shift effortlessly between store, pickup, and delivery solutions,” Kroger Chairman and CEO Rodney McMullen told analysts. “We expect digital sales will continue to grow at a faster pace than overall food-at-home sales.”

Aggregators, too, are seeing these kinds of increases, with more consumers adopting their grocery options in addition to their restaurant offerings.

“You are seeing continued growth, certainly, in the core restaurants business, [and] even faster growth in businesses like grocery,” DoorDash CEO Tony Xu told analysts on an earnings call with analysts last month. “Specifically on grocery, while I think that we have made tremendous strides, … There’s still a long ways to go … if you look, compared grocery penetration, in terms of online delivery in the U.S. relative to, say, online delivery of restaurant food, it’s substantially lower by multiples.”