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Growth rates will decline, but digital grocery will remain a key focus for retailers looking to drive incremental sales dollars in ecommerce.

How can retailers in grocery, the second-largest ecommerce category, optimize their online business to succeed?

Grocery is the second-largest ecommerce category we track, garnering $220.48 billion in 2025, according to our 鈥淯S Digital Grocery Forecast 2025鈥� report. Walmart is the top digital grocery retailer, capturing 31.6% of US grocery ecommerce sales in 2025, followed by Amazon (22.6%) and Kroger (8.6%).

The National Retail Federation鈥檚 (NRF) Big Show closed earlier this week, bringing together retailers, tech companies, and industry experts to discuss the future of retail. Key takeaways included Gen Z鈥檚 influence on shopping, which will last even if TikTok goes away, the accelerating trend cycle, hesitation to adopt new payment technologies, and the transformation of digital grocery. Here are four takeaways from the event.

As the digital grocery landscape grows more crowded, retailers must meet consumers' expectations around product selection, mobile app features, and fulfillment. 鈥凄颈驳颈迟补濒 grocery is no longer an emerging category,鈥� said our analyst Blake Droesch. 鈥淚t鈥檚 grown really fast over the last couple of years, and the market is pretty mature at this point.鈥� Here are three ways retailers can stay competitive, according to our Digital Grocery Opportunity report.

Digital grocery sales are growing again across Western Europe as inflation forces higher spending, click and collect gains momentum, and mobile loyalty schemes come to the fore. 鈥�

Grocery sales shifting online is a lasting legacy of the pandemic: We expect 13.7% of grocery sales to occur online this year, more than double the 6.2% share in prepandemic 2019.

Grocery is set to become the largest US ecommerce category by 2026.

A lot happens in a week, so every Friday we're going to analyze all the new data and provide you with some of the key takeaways. Welcome to the Friday 5. This week, price comparisons drive online shopping, consumers consider their grocery necessities, and retail media proves its effectiveness to consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands.

Walmart has the largest audience of any digital grocery platform. But our survey found that Amazon Fresh customers were more active and willing to try new products.

Convenience matters, but today's cost-conscious consumers demand quality too. This shift forces marketers to rethink convenience's role in purchase decisions. Both online and physical retailers prioritize seamless experiences, but with different challenges. Brick-and-mortar stores struggle to deliver convenience, while ecommerce faces growing price sensitivity. Here are five key stats that reveal how consumers view convenience in 2025.

Shopping habits foretell the next phase of digital growth for grocery products.

Every step of the grocery shopping journey is being digitized; how do consumers feel about it?

Our take: With digital grocery sales growth slowing considerably, Instacart will have to pull as many levers as it can to lure shoppers and encourage them to spend. Its partnership with Uber is paying early dividends, as are its affordability efforts, but that momentum could soon shift in the face of broader economic uncertainty.

US Digital Grocery Forecast 2025 (蘑菇AV subscription required). US CPG Industry Ad Spending 2024(蘑菇AV subscription required). Methodology: Data is from the Placer.ai report titled "Quarterly Retail Review: Q4 2024." Placer.ai analyzes 1.5+ billion monthly visitors across 20 million devices, 13+ million venues, thousands of segments, and 500+ mobile apps.

Over half (56%) of US grocery retail executives are concerned about competition from internet grocery stores (like Thrive Market or Fresh Direct), according to a June 2024 survey from Deloitte. Nearly as many (53%) are concerned about third-party grocery shopping apps like Instacart or DoorDash.

Digital grocery will become the largest ecommerce category by 2026, according to our US Digital Grocery 2024 report. To grow their share of digital grocery sales, brands need to understand what motivates consumers to buy groceries online, how the digital grocery experience can be improved, and where growth opportunities lie.

Though growth is slowing, digital grocery will continue to fuel overall ecommerce growth in the US. 鈥淕rowth is no longer driven by new adopters, but heavy digital grocery users,鈥� our analyst Blake Droesch said on a recent 鈥淩eimagining Retail鈥� podcast episode. Here鈥檚 how retailers like Instacart, Amazon, and Walmart can capitalize on frequent buyers.