Digital Grocery Order Value Soars

Digital grocery’s value continues to soar as shoppers embrace the convenience of on-the-go shopping.

In its latest “State of Digital Grocery Performance Scorecard,” Grocery Doppio reports that digital sales created the $30 billion mark ($30.2 billion) in Q3, representing a 14.4% increase over Q2’s performance. On the surface, this rise in overall digital grocery value suggests that consumers are relying on digital for a larger percentage of their grocery shopping needs, but a deeper look into the numbers reveals a worrisome trend.

The stark increase in digital revenue was not caused by shoppers’ growing reliance on digital shopping to meet their recurring grocery needs, but rather the ongoing and alarming inflation that is hitting the grocery and food service industries particularly hard.

In fact, Grocery Doppio reports that in Q3 the average number of items in a digital order dropped to 20, down from 21 in Q2 and 24 in Q1. The year to date from 2021 to 2022 stat is ever more striking, with the average number of items decreasing by more than 5.

Despite the decrease in the number of items in the typical digital order, overall sales numbers continue to rise, thanks to the skyrocketing cost of goods. According to the report, since January, the average price per item in a digital basket has increased by 21%. To help offset rising costs, 73% of the more than 18 thousand shoppers surveyed since January for this ongoing research series report that they have moved to lower-priced brands in response to increasing prices.

The increase in the cost of goods, coupled with the stickiness of a well-orchestrated digital experience, has helped make digital basket size substantially larger than its in-store counterparts. In Q3, the average digital order value was $76.20, compared to the $52.40 value of the typical in-store cart.

Consumers that have embraced digital grocery are leveraging it for more than just a couple of last-minute items, they are using it as a substantial piece of their grocery shopping experience, and in many instances using it to fully replace the traditional in-store path to purchase.

This commitment to digital grocery shopping among consumers has incentivized grocers to invest in their operational and fulfillment firepower to ensure orders are met seamlessly and quickly. This investment has helped grocers compete with third-party delivery services, and is allowing grocers to take a bite out of third-party sales.

In Q3 third-party services accounted for 23.3% of total digital grocery sales, down from 26.7% in Q2. On an overall value basis, third-party sales stayed steady at $7 billion in Q3, matching Q2 totals, but were far off the $9.1 billion third-party providers racked up in Q1.

For more insight into the current state of digital grocery shopping be sure to check out the full “State of Digital Grocery Performance Scorecard, Q3 2022” here.