Attention, shoppers: the perfect storm for online grocery shopping may be over, but this trend is here to stay—with one expert anticipating a slow but deliberate growth in this space going forward.
“Some people got used to the convenience of grocery shopping online and they stuck with it even after the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Toronto retail analyst Bruce Winder. “It’s one of those services that makes life easier.”
Winder, author of the book Retail Before, During & After COVID-19, noted that the degree of utilization for grocery delivery services and BOPIS (Buy Online Pick Up in Store) “went through the roof” at the height of the pandemic. Then e-commerce grocery went down quickly, but it is now back on a reasonable growth trajectory, he said.
That sentiment is echoed by Sylvain Charlebois, professor and director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax. When it comes to buying food online, he pointed out that Canada still lags far behind the United States and Europe. “We are catching up incredibly slowly,” he said.
According to a 2023 Canada Grocery Retailing Market Report by Mintel, a global market research firm, about 30 per cent of Canadians buy some groceries online and only four per cent do most or all of their shopping this way. Consumers enjoy visiting grocery stores, which is why 70 per cent do all their shopping in-store, the report found.
By contrast, 50 per cent of consumers in the United States engage in online grocery shopping, recent research from Mintel shows.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of Canadians are back to in-store shopping, said Winder.
In fact, Canadian consumers are visiting grocery stores 32 per cent more than they did before the pandemic. On average, Canadians now make 7.20 trips to the grocery store per month, up from 5.43 in 2018, according to a new survey by Dalhousie University and marketing insights firm Caddle.
Charlebois said the rise in foot traffic is in part due to a smarter marketplace.
“In reality, people aren’t spending more. They are just going elsewhere and doing their homework,” he said.
Indeed, another Dalhousie report found that Canadians spent less on food in 2023 despite inflation.
“Additionally, 43 per cent of Millennials are using food-rescuing apps to buy expiring food at a discount, the highest usage percentage of all generations,” Charlebois wrote in a recent column.
He said ‘Generation Z’ and ‘Millennials’—an economic prime right now—are embracing online grocery shopping more than older ‘Boomers’.
It’s entrenched in these two demographics to buy stuff online, whereas older generations might have to rethink an online purchase, agreed Winder. Online grocery buyers tend to skew towards a younger demographic, particularly those who are affluent with disposable income, busy and pressed for time, tech-savvy and value convenience, he added.
A new report by credit union Vancity reveals that Gen Zs and Millennials combined spent nearly nine times more than boomers on food delivery using Vancity credit cards in 2022.