Since surging more than 20% year-over-year in 4Q24, total U.S. e-grocery sales have sustained that rate of growth for six consecutive quarters through 1Q26, according to the ongoing monthly Brick Meets Click Grocery Shopper Survey. This sustained hyper-growth is being fueled by new fulfillment innovations that offer even quicker cycle times for delivery and ship-to-home orders.
“Given this competitive activity, the big question for traditional grocers – and especially regionals – is how they will accelerate growth and remain relevant while protecting profit margins and the customer experience,” says David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click. “To provide some answers, we have integrated growth opportunity mapping into this year’s e-grocery performance benchmarking initiative.”
Key takeaways:
· Ultra-fast delivery and sub-same-day ship-to-home of fresh groceries are attracting a greater share of grocery spending online. In addition, while pickup continues to post healthy gains, its growth rate is being outpaced by both delivery and ship-to-home, which are growing nearly three times as fast as pickup.
· Online’s share of total grocery spending has climbed dramatically on a quarterly basis, expanding from less than 15% at the end of 3Q24 to more than 19% in 1Q26. When excluding ship-to-home, online's share of total spending jumped from 12% to nearly 16% over the same period.
· It’s estimated that same-day e-grocery orders accounted for nearly 80% of delivery orders and over 30% of ship-to-home orders across all retail formats. Furthermore, ultra-fast fulfillment (i.e. within one hour or less) made up 18% of all delivery orders and 10% of ship-to-home orders.
