Throughout last year, Ahold Delhaize’s e-commerce performance reflected the impact of its divestment of FreshDirect, the e-grocer that the company sold at the end of 2023.
Ahold Delhaize’s U.S. digital sales were negative for all four quarters of fiscal 2024 and dropped 3.6% for the full year to 4.1 billion euros ($4.3 billion). The divestment of FreshDirect had a negative impact of more than 14 percentage points on U.S. online sales for the fiscal year, according to the company’s 2024 annual report released Wednesday.
The drop was partially offset, however, by double-digit online growth at Food Lion, Hannaford and The Giant Company as well as Ahold Delhaize’s partnership with DoorDash.
Ahold Delhaize’s U.S. banners joined DoorDash’s platform in February 2024. The company saw increasing growth in third-party platform sales, including triple the number of orders in Q3 compared to Q1 due to the DoorDash partnership. The grocery company also noted that the tie-up attracted new customers during the year.
Ahold Delhaize’s online grocery penetration and online sales in the U.S. both increased rapidly from 2020 to 2021 and were up slightly in 2022, but both metrics have stagnated in the years since.
The grocery company also credited the Prism app, its proprietary e-commerce platform, for fueling a nearly 80% uptick in loyalty sales penetration. Currently, Food Lion is continuing its migration onto the Prism platform, which is slated to be completed this year.
