NPD Finds Online Grocery Shoppers Skew Male & Younger

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. — Online grocery shopping is on the rise with 52 million Americans currently using the internet to stock their shelves. The biggest adopters of the online grocery shopping trend are younger men, according to newly released research from The NPD Group.

The Virtual Grocery Store, a new report from the market researcher, found that men have turned to online grocery shopping more than any other group. Sixty percent of men aged 18-44 have purchased groceries online. Since men generally think of grocery shopping as a “necessary evil,” doing it from the ease of a computer makes it less of a burden.

Furthermore, younger men are getting married and starting families later than they have in the past, meaning that more men are doing grocery shopping by default. More than 40 percent of primary grocery shoppers today are men, according to NPD.

“Men tend to make grocery shopping a mission and spend less time in brick-and-mortar stores compared to women,” NPD noted. “Men will also buy fewer items on each trip and will likely leave the store if they can’t find an item. … For these reasons, online shoppers are disproportionately men who are looking to avoid physical trips to the store.”

In addition to men, Amazon Prime subscribers are also leading the online grocery shopping trend. Through its research, NPD found that 52 percent of the 31 million households with Prime members shop for groceries online. 

Click here to read the full story from Convenience Store News sister publication Progressive Grocer.