Grocery E-Commerce Grows 15.5% While In-Store Sales Slide

Online food and beverage sales rose 15.5% during the four weeks ending Oct. 4 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data shared Wednesday by Circana. Brick-and-mortar sales went the other way, falling 2.8% year over year. Overall sector sales slipped by just under 1%.

The figures come from Circana's latest U.S. CPG Demand Signals report, and they align with what traditional supermarket operators have been reporting in their own quarterly results. Grocers are trying to square growth plans with shoppers who have turned careful — very careful — with their food budgets.

Circana found consumers are reducing waste, cutting excess without sacrificing quality, and balancing price tiers, pack sizes and private label goods. The numbers back that up. Store brand sales ticked up slightly during the reporting period, while national brands sagged by about 1%.

Where the sales actually moved

Perishables — dairy, produce, meat, baked goods, seafood, deli and other refrigerated items — all declined year over year. Circana flagged produce as a key contributor to the overall softness in food and beverage sales, noting the category ran into headwinds earlier this year amid the cyclospora crisis.

Nonperishables told a different story. Baking supplies, beverages, shelf-stable meals and snacks all posted gains.

How big is the digital shift?

Bigger than a 15.5% bump suggests. Grocery e-commerce consultancy Brick Meets Click found online grocery sales climbed more than 20% in the third quarter of 2026 — a record share of total grocery spending. Delivery sales jumped more than 30% year over year and drove roughly three-quarters of that increase. Pickup rose in the mid-single digits.

What does this change for conventional grocers?

Plenty. Multiple food retailers have watched overall sales growth wither in recent quarters even as digital sales keep climbing, a split that captures the dilemma facing chains trying to use their stores as a differentiator against e-commerce powerhouses like Amazon and Walmart.

The quarterly numbers make the divide plain:

• Kroger: flat comparable-store sales in its latest quarter; digital sales up 20%.
• Ahold Delhaize's U.S. operations: comps up less than 1%; e-commerce growth of more than 14%.
• Albertsons: negative same-store sales in its most recent quarter; digital sales up 11%.

That's the trap in one table. The channel grocers invested in for scale — the store — is shrinking as a sales driver, while the channel they've had to build out expensively, e-commerce, is the only thing growing.

The pressure isn't evenly distributed, either. Delivery, the most operationally expensive fulfillment model for most grocers, accounted for about three-quarters of Brick Meets Click's third-quarter growth. Pickup, which many chains built first and run through existing stores, grew only in the mid-single digits. Growth, in other words, is concentrating in the costliest format.

For national brands, the picture is doubly uncomfortable: unit sales soft in stores, private label stealing marginal share, and the fastest-growing channel dominated by players with superior logistics. The 1% decline Circana recorded for national brands sits right next to rising store brand sales — a trade-down pattern that tends to stick once households learn it.

The forward signal is hard to miss. With perishables down, national brands down and in-store sales down nearly 3%, grocers' digital operations are no longer a growth garnish. They're the meal.