The Future of Grocery: Online Grocery, Meal Kits, & Direct-to-Consumer Food, 3rd Edition

In 2024, online grocery sales accounted for 11% of total grocery spending in the US, nearly four times the share of spending just five years earlier. Growth will be driven by consumer interest in convenience in terms of not only shopping time and delivery options, but also with meal planning and preparations.

The Future of Grocery: Online Grocery, Meal Kits, & Direct-to-Consumer Food examines the dynamics of the current landscape of the online food and beverage market. Consumer demographics, perceptions, motivations, and behavior are examined as pertaining to dietary choices and use of food delivery and pickup services. Attitudes on food, diet, health, and product packaging are studied. Effects of recent historical trends on consumers – including the COVID-19 pandemic and the inflation era – are considered in both a broad sense and in the context of the online grocery market.

The reasons for and implications of shifts in consumer perception and behavior are analyzed in the context of present and future market opportunities.

Market size data are provided at the retail sales level for 2019-2024, and projections are provided for 2025-2029 and 2034.

This report provides information about online retail sales of food and beverages to consumers in the following product categories:shelf-stable foods and beverages in cans, bottles, or other packaging (including alcoholic beverages)meal kits and prepared mealsperishables such as fresh fruits and vegetablesdairy and egg productsmeat, poultry, and seafoodbakery itemsfrozen foods

This report includes online sales of such items from:
store-based grocers (e.g., Kroger, Safeway, ALDI)
mass merchandisers (e.g., Walmart, Target) and warehouse clubs (e.g., Costco, Sam’s Club, BJ’s)
online-based grocers (e.g., Amazon, Thrive Market, Hungryroot)
brands that sell their own food products via their websites, direct-to-consumer
meal kit and prepared meal delivery services (e.g., HelloFresh, Sakara Life, Factor)
third-party pack-and-deliver companies that use their own workforce to purchase groceries at various stores and deliver them to customers (e.g., Instacart)

local co-ops and farmers’ markets that arrange for subscriptions, single orders, and pickup or delivery digitallyOnline sales made via website or app – whether delivered to a customer via shipment or local delivery, picked up in-store, or received via curbside pickup – are all included. Show more