A 2019 research from KPMG on consumers and Grocery purchases reported that I in every 4 consumers will make over 40% of grocery purchase on the Internet. In 2018, it was 17% who completed their grocery transactions online.

Although online grocery e-commerce still took a small share of the grocery purchase, consumers are planning to shift their food buying into the internet space in 2019, as reported by KPMG, an accounting service company.

According to a survey of over 2,000 USA consumers, 48% of consumers purchase a part or even all of their grocery online while 59% are considering the online grocery option in 2019.

KPMG revealed that many of the respondents (over 75%) said that 70% of their grocery purchase will go online.

However, many shoppers are planning to spend more than that on their online grocery. So we expect a significant rise in the statistics.

About 25% of respondent revealed that over 40% of their e-commerce grocery purchase will be made online in 2019, up to 8% increment from 17% in 2018.

A lot of the proposed growth among the group of those promising to spend more than 40% online will come from existing shoppers who increase their purchase, according to KPMG.

The number of consumers spending between 21 to 40% of their grocery purchase online is predicted to decrease by 5% shoppers spending not more than 20% of their grocery on the e-commerce platform may decrease by 3%.

This finding consistently aligns with the last year survey from Brick Meets Click and MyWebGrocer, an e-commerce platform for supermarkets. According to that survey, increment in grocery ecommerce sales is primarily driven by an increase in the purchase by repeated customers, and not from new customers.

KPMG looks forward to seeing the emergence of the so-called, “barbell effect” into the grocery world. That means that a large number of in-store customers would move over to the online shopping platform, while others would continue with the in-store grocery purchase.

Furthermore, a priority survey from KPMG shows that the product quality (25%) and the product assortment (26%) is more important to hardcore shoppers than the price(18%).

However, shoppers in the e-commerce platform aren’t monolithic. The KPMG survey highlighted 4 important shopper segments which retailers can take due advantage of:

Most online pioneers are primarily below the age of 35. Over 80% of these online pioneers spend an average of $250 on groceries, while 60% of them belong to a warehouse club.

Online pioneers prioritize promotions and shopping experience that other people.

The next group is those who spend over 20% if their grocery transactions online hoping to increase it in the coming year.

The main shopping priority of this group is the product assortment.

Another group only does minimal shopping on the web. They generally don’t have plans to purchase more grocery online.

The last groups are those who do virtually all their transactions in store and don’t have plans of going online. 80% of people in this group fall above 35 years and over 40% of them don’t spend above $250 per month on their in-store groceries. These categories of shoppers only care about price and quality.

Meanwhile, credit car.com created an online poll to analyze how frequent people buy groceries online, alongside other food buying trend. The poll discovered that 21% of respondent said they spend money on processed food and drinks on a weekly basis, and 32% claim to make their purchase on a monthly basis.

The survey also reaches over 1000 U.S adults of 18 years and above and the results still stay the same.

Also, joint research from Rakuten Intelligence ( an e-commerce firm) and Nielsen Holdings PLC discovered that in mid last year, about 5% of the United States uses the e-commerce Grocery platform. This is a huge development as compared to the previous statistics and we hope many people dive into the e-commerce grocery space.

In a nutshell, although online grocery e-commerce still took a small share of the grocery purchase, consumers are planning to shift their food buying online in 2019. Statistics have been favorable so far, we only hope it continues.