BARRINGTON, ILL. – In March, online grocery sales totaled $8.7 billion, down 6% from March 2021, according to the latest Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey.

Online sales for the first quarter of 2022, however, were down just 2.5% from the first quarter last year.

The Ship-to-Home segment experienced the largest sales contraction, plummeting over 30% in March compared to a year ago, from $2.1 billion to $1.4 billion. The decline was driven by a 13% reduction in the number of orders placed by Monthly Active Users (MAUs) combined with a 23% drop in the average order value (AOV).

Pickup sales declined almost 11% in March from $4.3 billion in 2021 to $3.8 billion in 2022, affected by similar factors but to different degrees. Order frequency for Pickup declined 8% while AOV dipped less than 4% versus the prior year.

In contrast, Delivery reported strong sales growth for March, surging over 20% on a year-over-year basis from $2.9 billion to $3.5 billion. The number of orders placed by MAUs climbed by 13% and AOV rose 7% versus 2021.

“Two factors continued to drive Delivery’s strong performance in March,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click. “First, the aggressive expansion of third-party providers into grocery is enabling additional ways for people to shop online, and second, newer services focused on faster cycle times are appealing to a broader range of trip missions and usage occasions.”