U.S. online grocery sales totaled $10 billion for July 2025, a 26% increase from the prior year, according to the latest Brick Meets Click Grocery Shopper Survey, sponsored by Mercatus.
Record-high household penetration, strong order activity and solid gains in spending rates contributed to the exceptionally strong growth that helped online capture over 17% of total grocery spending during the month, according to a news release.
All three receiving methods posted strong monthly results during July. Delivery sales drove more than half of e-grocery monthly gains, jumping 36% on a year-over-year basis to finish July with $4.3 billion. Pickup posted $4 billion in monthly sales, growing 24% versus last year and contributing 38% to e-grocery year-over-year sales growth. Ship-to-home ended July with $1.6 billion in sales, an increase of 10% compared to July 2024, generating the balance of online’s sales growth this year.
“The elimination of explicit fees, like the standard delivery cost, via a membership or subscription program, removes a top barrier to increased usage and customers are taking advantage of it,” says David Bishop, partner for Brick Meets Click. “This tactic is unlocking latent demand for delivery which is typically viewed as the more convenient but also the more expensive option when compared to pickup.”
July set a record for e-grocery penetration as 81 million, or approximately 61% of U.S. households, bought groceries online during the month, whether the order was shipped, picked up or delivered. Compared to a year ago, the overall number of monthly active users (MAUs) climbed almost 11%, fueled by infrequent and/or lapsed users reengaging with this shopping mode as the total pool of households who have ever bought groceries online inched up just 35 basis points (bps).
The average number of e-grocery orders completed by MAUs during July grew 6.5% versus 12 months ago. The two middle age groups (30 to 44 and 45 to 60) generated the gains as the youngest and oldest groups both reported slight pullbacks in activity. And, while mass saw order frequency among its MAUs grow in the mid-single digits, supermarkets saw its order rate decline slightly versus July 2024 — largely due to a strong year-over-year expansion of its MAU base, according to Brick Meets Click.
Though all methods posted gains in their respective average order values (AOVs), delivery was the main driver of the 7% year-over-year increase in e-grocery’s overall AOV. Delivery’s AOV climbed 8%, pickup’s AOV grew under 5% and ship-to-home expanded by less than 2%. Another factor affecting delivery and pickup AOVs is the favorable shift in the mix of their respective MAU bases toward households who have completed four plus orders with the same online shopping service during the past three months, according to Brick Meets Click. This more-engaged user segment consistently reports spending about 50% more per order than first-timers.
“In an era where ‘free’ delivery is setting new customer expectations and Walmart’s retail media revenue fuels its competitive edge, regional grocers face mounting pressure to profitably serve shoppers online,” says Mark Fairhurst, chief growth marketing officer for Mercatus. “Grocery retailers that own and activate their customer data to target and personalize offers — especially for infrequent or lapsed shoppers — can turn renewed engagement into lasting loyalty, defending both sales and margins.”
Total grocery spending in July grew 2.7% versus a year ago while e-grocery spending climbed 26% year over year. As a result, e-grocery’s share of total grocery spending jumped more than 300 bps to finish July 2025 at 17.2%, or 14.4% if including only delivery and pickup, the survey shows.
