A Survey: Most shoppers prefer to buy groceries online

As economies open up and more people are stepping out of their homes, the reflection of it is quite evident in the statistics put up by Brick Meets Click/Mercatus.

According to their survey, the U.S grocery delivery and pick up sales for August is not as bright as it was in June.

From March to June of this year, the online grocery shopping sales figures were showing an unprecedented growth. Each month reached record figures and it was mainly due to the outbreak of the pandemic and the decrease in sales for August does not come as a big surprise as more people have started venturing out due to relaxation of lockdowns.

The decrease in sales for online grocery in August also indicates the lessening concern of U.S households about the virus from a 47 percent in April to a 38 percent in August according to Brick Meets Click's survey.

The figures dropped a little to $5.7 billion from that of $ 7.2 billion in June.

Unprecedented surge for online grocery sales may diminish

Majority of people believe that the unprecedented surge in online grocery sales caused by COVID-19 from mid march, will start diminishing at some point when stay at home orders and shopping restrictions like limited number of occupants, one-way the results of August cannot be treated as a benchmark for these observations as this drop in figures might be caused by retrenchment measures.

The market is definitely ripe and is poised for a new phase of growth with a huge base of committed customers waiting to continue their online shopping spree.

A good time to invest

In fact, it is a good time to invest and start a grocery store business with such a large customer base all set to use the grocery delivery system to meet their requirements. In the U.S, a figure of 37.5 million, which is around 29 percent of U.S households are active users of grocery pick-up and delivery services on a monthly basis. In August 2019, the figure was just 16.1 million, which is 133% less in number when compared to the number of users in August 2020 according to Brick Meets Click.

Even though the sales were a bit lower in August 2020, it came with its own set of achievements. The survey found out that spending per order was up by 32 when compared to that a year ago and settled down at $95. During the same time, last year, active shoppers placed 1.0 orders in a month as compared to a positive 1.6 orders this year.

Changing online grocery shopping trends

The survey also reports that more customers are generating new online grocery shopping habits. Out of the customers who were asked whether they would continue to shop groceries online within the next 30 days, a strong 75% said that they were "extremely or very likely" to continue with their online shopping habit. The improved online shopping experiences are driving more customers to follow this trend, says Brick Meets Click.

Final thoughts

There has definitely been a trend of increased online shopping habits among regular shoppers with the outbreak of the pandemic. New habits have formed in customers. So it is definitely something to watch out for when the weather changes.

Will they step out of their comfort zones and struggle with the rough weather, especially when they have an online option to meet their demands like groceries delivery? Let us wait and see!