Grocery purchases on Amazon have more than doubled in 10 years

Getting people to buy grocery items online has long been a tall order. But it’s one that Amazon may be on the cusp of cracking.

Last week, the e-commerce giant sent fear through the hearts of grocery store investors when it announced that Prime subscribers across the country could access free same-day delivery for perishable grocery items for the first time. “This marks one of the most significant grocery expansions for Amazon,” the company said.

New data shared by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) shows that 37% of US Amazon customers purchased traditional grocery store items — perishable and nonperishable — in their latest order. That’s up 7 percentage points from five years ago and is more than double what it was a decade ago, according to the firm’s surveys.

While only a small percentage of those grocery items likely included perishables — the share of grocery shoppers on Amazon who used Amazon Fresh as a delivery method was just 3% — any headway into the grocery category is major.

“It’s not easy to persuade US consumers to change grocery buying habits, much less to persuade them to buy that stuff online and get it delivered, so that’s quite an achievement,” CIRP partner and cofounder Michael Levin told Sherwood News.

Amazon’s latest announcement will only send its portion of the grocery store market up.

“Since the early days of supermarkets, premium perimeter offerings bring in customers who then shop the center-of-the-store,” the CIRP report reads, noting that Amazon has taken the opposite approach with perishables. “Amazon is gaining center-of-the-store market share to tee up its ultimate perimeter business.”