A new survey by eMeals found that many of its users begin cooking at home more after signing up for the meal planning and online ordering service.
eMeals offers numerous recipe plans, and when users select certain recipes, the company autofills an online grocery cart with ingredients. Pickup and delivery are available through Walmart, Kroger, AmazonFresh, Instacart and Shipt.
When eMeals recently surveyed its active users, nearly 4,300 responded, according to a news release.
More than 30% said they now cook at home five nights a week, up from 19% before joining eMeals, “helping increase grocery sales by adding two meals per week to the average grocery cart,” according to the release.
eMeals also reports that 40% of users now cook at home six or seven nights a week, up from 17% before they subscribed to the service.
The survey also found that 94% of respondents who had used a meal kit service dropped it, with more than three-fourth citing high cost as a reason.
eMeals describes its service as a positive for both retailers and shoppers.
“Every retail grocer is looking for ways to encourage consumers to add more meals to their carts, whether in-store or online,” eMeals CEO Forrest Collier said in the release. “These survey results clearly show that a meal planning service integrated with pickup and delivery partners can increase cart sizes and speed the adoption of online grocery.
“It also shows how fulfilling meal solution ingredients through the existing grocery supply chain solves the meal kit problem by lowering costs and simultaneously returning those food sales to the retail grocer’s bottom line,” Collier said. “It’s the best of all worlds for both the consumer and the grocery business.”
The survey also found that 32% of new users engaged with online grocery via eMeals recipes, and 43% of those using the recipes were trying online grocery for the first time.