The coronavirus boom in online grocery sales is slowing from their April peak, even if 2020 has been a landmark year for internet purchases. That is the conclusion by a recent S&P Global Market Intelligence report.

While online sales in April had grown by 300% beyond the same period in 2019, that figure has dropped to a 200% expansion for the first half of June, according to data from Rakuten Intelligence based on figures derived from 34 companies.

The same trend applies in varying degrees to some of the biggest players in the space: Instacart, Kroger and Amazon Fresh, the online retail giant's grocery subsidiary.

Instacart had the largest spike in sales, with a jump exceeding 500% in April. That number ticked downwards to just over 400% in May, and was still an impressive 300% up for the start of June.

Gains at Amazon Fresh have proved to be more stable. The increases there also started well before the arrival of COVID-19 on U.S. shores. They were up over 100% from last year for January and February, before rising to 300% for April and May. That increase dipped slightly below 300% for the first part of June.

At their April peak, Kroger's online sales expanded by roughly 125% beyond 2019's numbers. That figure has slowly dipped since then, but is still more than 100% above the previous year.

Aggregate online sales hit a record $6.6 billion in May, according to a survey conducted by Brick Meets Click and Mercatus.

Even before the coronavirus emerged as as a force that would destabilize the U.S. economy, the online grocery sector was poised for a strong 2020. Researchers at global measurement company Nielsen said at the end of 2019 that online sales had grown an average of 45% for each of the past three years.

But much of that growth had been concentrated in a small pocket of buyers. Ten percent of shoppers accounted for half of these new sales.

The pandemic has certainly helped broaden the base of users. In May, according to the Brick Meets Click and Mercauts survey, 43 million individuals had shopped online for groceries over the past thirty days. In August 2019, that figure was just 13.1 million.

"COVID-19 has accelerated online grocery adoption at a rate the industry hadn't expected to see for years," Mercatus CEO and president Sylvain Perrier said in a statement. "The online surge may level off slightly as various states strive to return to 'normal.' However, what has changed in shoppers' eyes is the realization of the immediate benefits of online grocery shopping."

Instant Insights /

Online Grocery Sales Still Surging, But Down From April Peak

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