Which way is the pendulum swinging with in-store vs. online grocery shopping?

As COVID-19 has receded, retailers of all stripes have reported shoppers returning to brick-and-mortar stores after an explosion in online transactions during the pandemic. But new research paints an unclear picture of how the trend sits with grocery shoppers.

Hybrid shopping — buying some groceries in stores and some online — also has becoming a growing trend in the post-pandemic period

A study released this week by payments and commerce infosite PYMNTS.com found that, on average, only 44% of 2,426 consumers polled make most of their “common grocery item” purchases at physical stores, down from 63% in early 2020. “And this is just the beginning,” the “Changes in Grocery Shopping Habits and Perceptions” report said.

“A small but rapidly growing share of consumers now buy all their groceries online, led by the Millennial and Bridge Millennial age groups,” PYMNTS stated. “While the vast majority of consumers still at least occasionally shop at physical grocery stores, the trend of hybrid shopping—buying groceries both online and in-store—is quickly becoming the norm.”

Online-only grocery shoppers on the rise? Of shoppers surveyed by PYMNTS, 77% have reduced grocery store purchases for at least one category of items. Nonfood items represent most of the cutbacks cited, including cleaning supplies (48.2%), personal and health care products (48.1%) and paper goods (47.4%). More than a third (37.7%) of consumers named packaged items as a category where they’ve cut in-store purchases, as well as food segments such as frozen (36%) and canned (34.6%) foods, fresh produce (33.9%), and fresh meat/seafood (33.2%).

PYMNTS pointed to growth in digital grocery shopping as pulling consumers away from in-store transactions. Its research revealed that the average share of shoppers buying no groceries from brick-and-mortar stores climbed from 2.2% just before the pandemic to 37% currently.

“We also detected a reduction in the average number of goods purchased per visit to physical grocery stores, from an estimated six before the pandemic to four now,” the report said.

The trend is similar in terms of share of consumers. Prior to COVID-19, 0.2% of consumers bought all of their daily essentials online, compared with 7.2%—about 16 million U.S. consumers—today, PYMNTS reported. The top reasons cited by shoppers for going online versus going to stores were convenience (36.2%) and high prices/lack of benefits or deals in stores (31.8%).

“The trend toward hybrid shopping—buying groceries both online and in-store—is also increasing, albeit more slowly. Thirty-nine percent of consumers now buy their groceries through a mix of physical and digital channels, up from 37% pre-pandemic,” the PYMNTS study said. “Across all age groups, the share of hybrid shoppers remained relatively steady despite the rise of all-digital shoppers, underscoring the systemic shift toward digital channels.” Read More On..