Despite e-commerce momentum, in-store shopping reigns supreme, survey finds

Dive Brief:

A recent poll by Survey Monkey found that 86% of adults in the U.S. want to buy groceries themselves at the store.
Meanwhile, e-commerce split the remaining respondents, with 7% saying they prefer pickup, while the other 7% favor delivery for their groceries.
In-store shopping maintained strong preferences of 80% or more across gender (90% of men and 82% of women), age groups and income groups, according to the poll. After a year of pandemic-induced online shopping, the survey shows that in-store grocery trips still reign supreme.

Dive Insight:

Despite e-commerce's boom during the pandemic, Survey Monkey’s findings build on other recent polls and research that show shoppers still prefer in-person shopping by a wide margin.

The poll was conducted between April 28-29 with a sample of 1,040 adults. The results were weighted for age, race, sex, education and geography using data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Beyond that main finding, the survey results dug deeper into shoppers' preferences across channels and formats. While other surveys have indicated that pickup will continue to dominate over delivery, the Survey Monkey results suggests the two e-commerce options can each target different demographics. People ages 18 to 34 showed the most enthusiasm for delivery, with 9% in that age group saying they prefer it, while the same percentage of people ages 65 and older said they favor pickup. Ten percent of female respondents said they prefer delivery compared to 3% of male respondents.

The survey also delved into respondents’ preferences for restaurants, meal kits and food delivery. Over the last three months, respondents said they ordered more from food delivery companies like Instacart (7%), Uber Eats (13%) and DoorDash (17%) than they did from meal kit companies like HelloFresh (4%), Blue Apron (2%) and Freshly (1%). When asked how they plan to shop for the next three months, respondents’ answers remained roughly the same.

More than half of the respondents said they prefer to dine in-person at a restaurant instead of order for delivery or pickup, and 74% said they would rather interact with a server than order through a self-serve QR code. For take-out orders, 65% said they plan to order the same amount in the next three months as they currently do, while 25% said they expect to place fewer orders.

Respondents' confidence about in-person shopping and dining could be stemming from the availability of COVID-19 vaccines and tests and some states lifting pandemic restrictions. A survey released last week by Inmar Intelligence found that people are more open to in-person grocery shopping as the percentage of the population inoculated against the virus grows.