Nearly 40 percent of United States shoppers bought groceries online in the past year, a significant jump from Coresight Research’s 2018 survey. Meanwhile, Walmart and Amazon recently launched new services as they battle for the top online grocery spot.
According to Coresight, most Americans purchased groceries on Amazon.com – 62.5 percent of consumers surveyed purchased on Amazon.
However, Amazon shoppers typically spend less of their grocery budget online than do shoppers using Walmart.com, Target.com, or Kroger.com, “suggesting Amazon grocery shoppers tend to be occasional or small-basket online shoppers,” Coresight said on its website.
To counter Amazon’s recent addition of free next day delivery for all Prime members in the U.S., Walmart.com added free next day delivery on a wide range of products, “without a membership fee,” the retailer said on its website.
NextDay delivery will be available first to Walmart.com customers in Phoenix, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, and will expand to Southern California soon.
“It will roll out gradually over the coming months, with a plan to reach approximately 75 percent of the U.S. population this year, which includes 40 of the top 50 major U.S. metro areas,” Walmart said.
Walmart is also expanding its Grocery Pickup and Grocery Delivery Services this year. “We’re on track to offer Grocery Pickup from 3,100 stores and same-day Grocery Delivery from 1,600 stores by year-end, which will provide coverage to approximately 80 percent and 50 percent of the U.S. population,” Walmart said.
In fact, Coresight found that the portion of people buying groceries online who bought from Walmart jumped from 25.5 percent in 2018 to 37.4 percent in 2019.
In addition, 15.7 percent of online grocery shoppers bought from Target.com in the past year, versus 6.9 percent in 2018.
Overall, nearly 35 million more consumers bought groceries online between 2018 and 2019, according to Coresight.
