In 2022, the Economic Research Service’s Eating and Health Module captured, for the first time, nationally representative data concerning the prevalence and frequency of Americans doing online grocery shopping.
The survey data revealed that nearly nine out of ten individuals aged 15 and older (87.2 percent) reported they usually grocery shopped for their household either online or in person. Of these, about two in 10 (19.3 percent) had bought groceries online at least in the past 30 days. However, the frequency of online shopping varied. Among those who had bought groceries online in the past month, 30 percent did once, 25 percent made two online purchases, and 44 percent bought groceries online three or more times. The landscape of online grocery shopping took a big shift in 2020 because of COVID.
The Food and Drug Administration says online grocery sales grew 55 percent from 2019’s $62 billion to $96 billion in 2020.