Food & Beverage Ecommerce Statistics

Food & Beverage Trends: Pandemic-era growth has slowed

The Food & Beverage category’s online sales grew to about $30.95 billion in 2023, from about $27.80 billion in 2022.

At the same time, the category’s total retail sales in the United States reached about $979.16 billion. That’s up from about $957.19 billion in 2022. By those measures, the Food & Beverage retailers in the Top 1000 grew both their own sales as well as their share of the total category’s sales in 2023.

Conversion rate for Food & Beverage retailers

The online conversion rate for Food & Beverage retailers in the Top 1000 dropped in 2023, but it was still ahead of the Top 1000’s median conversion rate as a whole.

In 2023, the Food & Beverage category’s median conversion rate was 4.1%, according to Digital Commerce 360 data. That’s down from its 4.9% conversion rate the year before, but still above the 2.6% rate for the Top 1000 combined.

Online grocery shoppers across all ages

The COVID-19 pandemic changed how people shopped for food. And everyone has to eat.

Although millennials account for the largest share of online Food & Beverage consumers, consumers across all age groups are buying their groceries online. Those 25-34 account for the largest share at 24.3% of sales, closely followed by those 35-44 (21.1%).

Meanwhile, the split was pretty similar among those 18-24 (14.4%) and those 45-54 and 55-64 (16.8% and 14.1%, respectively). And nearly a tenth of shoppers 65 and older have been buying groceries online, too (9%).