Source: Retail Feedback Group

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y.  — The Retail Feedback Group (RFG), a leader in providing actionable stakeholder feedback, today released the 2020 U.S. Online & In-Store Grocery Shopping Study. This report provides valuable insight from both online and in-store supermarket shoppers, collected during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dual Channel Shopping Becoming More Common, Particularly Among Younger Shoppers

Overall, 50% of in-store supermarket shoppers in the last 30 days also ordered groceries online. Not surprisingly, this is even more common with Gen Z (66%) and Millennials (61%), and to a lesser degree Gen X (52%), followed more distantly by Boomers (37%) and the Silent Generation (38%). It should also be noted that Gen Z shoppers registered the lowest overall satisfaction, on a five-point scale where five is highest, relative to the other generations, for both their online (4.22) and in-store (4.02) experiences.

“Grocers and analysts have traditionally segmented ‘in-store shoppers’ from ‘online shoppers.’ However, a key takeaway from our research is the extent to which individual shoppers are now buying groceries both in a store and online, and that this activity is strongest among the younger and growing generations,” commented Doug Madenberg, RFG Principal. “We now have food shoppers who are able, and increasingly willing, to utilize a blend of physical stores and digital storefronts to meet their families’ needs, and it will be paramount to satisfy these shoppers going forward.”

Majority of Online Shoppers Used More Than One Service Provider in Last Three Months

While 38% of shoppers used one online grocery provider, 62% used two or more providers in the last three months, during the pandemic. This suggests many shoppers tried multiple services to see who could best meet their needs in terms of factors like product availability and pickup or delivery slots.

Online Grocery Shopping by Channel: Supermarkets Surged During Pandemic

The supermarket channel jumped to 34% of online shoppers indicating a supermarket as where they most recently shopped online for groceries during the pandemic (up from 22% in 2019). Walmart still registered the highest overall percentage of shoppers at 40% (showing a small increase from 37% in 2019) and Amazon decreased significantly from 29% to 14%. Instacart-fulfilled orders grew to 36%, up from 27% last year. However, despite the pandemic surge, supermarket shoppers constitute the largest percentage indicating they plan to shop less for grocery items online in the coming year (20%), as compared to Walmart (16%) and Amazon (13%) shoppers.

Overall satisfaction among online shoppers registered 4.38 (on a five-point scale), down from 4.48 in 2019. While all channels showed lower overall satisfaction as compared to the previous year, marks were still relatively high with Amazon leading (4.47), followed by Walmart (4.38) and Supermarkets (4.33). The Instacartfulfilled subset had overall satisfaction of 4.35, down from 4.48 in 2019.