Shopping patterns change when US digital grocery buyers increase their purchase frequency

Key stat: Nearly 30% of US consumers buy groceries online more than once per month. And their numbers are expected to grow, significantly affecting both online and offline grocery sales in the coming years.

Even the most frequent digital grocery buyers (defined as those who make more than one online purchase per month) purchase groceries both in stores and online. But they are more likely to purchase perishables online and forgo buying certain categories in stores.

They still shop in stores, but there’s a noticeable decrease across categories.

• Digital grocery buyers still buy most product categories in stores. This is particularly true for perishables. More than 80% of digital grocery buyers purchased milk, eggs, or cheese in stores in the last 12 months, compared with the 53.6% who did so online. The same is true for nonperishables, but the ratio is more even-keeled. In the snacks category, more than 67% of digital grocery buyers made an in-store purchase, compared with a slightly larger 68.3% who purchased snacks online.
• Frequent digital grocery buyers are less likely to shop in-store for some categories. That trend is most pronounced for perishable and semiperishable categories (fruits or vegetables, bread or bakery products, and frozen foods) but also extends to snacks; pantry items; and laundry, paper, or cleaning products.

Key takeaway: Some frequent digital grocery buyers are opting for online-only purchases in select categories. For example, this cohort was more likely to have purchased snack foods online (70.7%) in the last 12 months, compared with in-stores (61.8%). This trend will likely contribute to the persistent growth of online CPG sales in the years to come, but it may come at the expense of in-store sales.