February e-grocery sales surge 31% versus a year ago

U.S. online grocery sales in February were up 31% compared to the same month last year, with February 2025 ending with $10.3 billion in monthly sales, according to the Brick Meets Click Grocery Shopper Survey sponsored by Mercatus.

The report also shows that more than 80 million households placed one or more e-grocery orders during February 2025, a record high.

February marked the seventh straight period where monthly sales exceeded $9.5 billion and the ninth consecutive period with positive year-over-year sales growth, starting shortly after deeply discounted offers on annual membership and subscriptions began being promoted, according to a news release.

“We are a little more than a half year into e-grocery’s current growth curve, fueled by aggressive offers to lock in customers for at least 12 months,” said David Bishop, partner for Brick Meets Click. “So far, the response from U.S. households reveals a sizable amount of latent demand that has been unlocked by offering discounts designed to help customers save more money on online grocery orders.”

Delivery continued to post extremely strong results for February, growing more than 45% versus a year ago and registering $4.5 billion in sales. A surge in monthly active users was the predominant growth factor, driven mainly by the rapid expansion of users in the 60 years-plus age group and a year-over-year rebound in penetration with 18-29-year-olds, the release said. Brick Meets Click said strong gains in order frequency and average order values also contributed to the robust performance, enabling delivery to finish the month with nearly 44% of e-grocery’s total sales.

Pickup reported strong gains for February, climbing 19% versus last year, to approximately $4.1 billion in sales, the release said. Pickup’s MAU base and order frequency rate both grew year over year, but the primary driver of sales growth was a higher AOV. However, pickup’s AOV and MAU base and order frequency all increased at slightly slower paces than delivery’s. Despite the monthly sales gain, pickup’s share of total e-grocery sales fell 400 bps versus last year, closing February with just over 39%.

Ship-to-home sales jumped nearly 29% versus the prior year, as this method posted almost $1.8 billion in sales. Like delivery, ship-to-home’s year-over-year gains were driven by a surge in MAUs, which may have been fueled partly by the current in-store environment where various categories are merchandised behind locked plastic glass doors to prevent theft, the release said. While ship-to-home order frequency and AOV also climbed versus last year, the gains were more muted than those for delivery. Overall, ship-to-home essentially maintained its 17% share position, ceding just 30 bps of share compared to a year ago, Brick Meets Click said.

Building on the strong results for each receiving segment, supermarket and mass retailers also had a positive February. Both posted year-over-year gains across the three core drivers of top-line sales: MAUs, order frequency and AOV.

In addition, the grocery (which includes supermarkets and hard discounters) and mass formats reported improvements in repeat intent rates related to delivery and pickup services with grocery closing most of its gap with mass. In fact, the likelihood of reusing the same grocery or mass service again within the next month finished just 7% below the pre-COVID rate in February, setting a new post-COVID high that surpasses the record set in January, the release said.

“Regional grocers are converting first-time shoppers into more loyal customers as evidenced by the rising repeat intent rates, but so is Walmart,” said Mark Fairhurst, chief growth marketing officer for Mercatus. “While deep discounts have driven a lot of trial, making a good first impression is essential to longer-term success. That means providing a more seamless shopping experience by pairing relevant personalized offers, order fulfilment and sought-after loyalty rewards to encourage customers to shop online again.”

Given e-grocery’s explosive sales growth of 31% compared to overall grocery spending, which rose less than 5% versus February 2024, online’s share of total grocery spending finished at almost 18%, jumping 370 basis points versus last year, the release said.

For more information about February 2025 results, check out the latest Brick Meets Click e-grocery Dashboard or visit the e-grocery Monthly Sales report page for information about subscribing to the full monthly report.