Five Grocery Trends to Keep an Eye on in 2025

he grocery industry is transforming how consumers shop for food and how brands engage with customers. Emerging trends are shaping a more convenient, personalized, and efficient grocery industry. As we look ahead to 2025, grocery retailers will need to stay agile, embracing innovation and digitization to meet evolving consumer demands. The grocers that adapt to these changes will thrive in the increasingly competitive landscape.

Here’s a look at five grocery trends to keep an eye on in 2025.

The pandemic accelerated the adoption of online grocery shopping, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down. Households making online grocery orders reached a record 77.8 million in November, breaking the previous record of 76.7 million set in April 2020, according to the monthly Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopper Survey. Consumers will continue to gravitate towards the ease and convenience of online grocery shopping in the future. Grocery eCommerce sales are predicted to grow three times faster than in-store grocery sales. Total grocery eCommerce sales are projected to reach nearly $120 billion annually by the end of 2028, accounting for 12.7% of total grocery sales in the U.S., according to a Brick Meets Click report.

Consumers increasingly value grocery retailers that offer personalized experiences. Nearly 80% of grocery customers have come to expect tailored digital shopping experiences and become frustrated when they don’t receive them. Retailers are listening to their consumers’ needs as 89% of grocery execs believe that personalization is key to meeting their shoppers’ expectations, with 83% viewing personalization as a competitive driver, according to a report from Dynamic Yield by Mastercard. Ninety-one percent of grocers saw an increase in conversion when they deployed shopper segmentation and targeting.

Retailers are implementing digital solutions to offer personalized shopping experiences and give shoppers new tools for product discovery. Albertsons’ direct-to-consumer wine shipping platform, Vine & Cellar Reserve, is using Preferabli’s AI-driven product discovery and recommendation software in wine, spirits and food. Vine & Cellar Reserve provides content, guided recommendations, a showcase for wines with similar taste characteristics, and food pairing recommendations. Customers can receive tailored suggestions based on their individual preferences, learn about different wines, and find and discover new wines.

Specialty and discount grocers have consistently outperformed traditional supermarkets in monthly year-over-year visit growth, according to a recent Placer.ai report. Consumers are willing to travel farther to get to specialty grocery stores, according to data from Placer.ai. Value chains cater to shoppers seeking out specific items and lower prices. Shoppers’ growing reliance on these two types of supermarkets could change the grocery landscape at a time when discount grocers like Aldi are expanding their store footprints.

Warehouse club retailers, including Costco and BJ’s Wholesale Club, are also growing their customer bases, providing more opportunities for customers to purchase fresh groceries at lower prices. As more consumers shop for groceries online, retailers are expanding their omnichannel operations. BJ’s Wholesale Club has been directing resources toward expanding digital capabilities to better engage with members and provide them with a convenient way to shop, including same-day delivery, curbside pick-up, and buy online, pick up in-club.

As consumer demand for faster, more flexible delivery options increases, grocery delivery is evolving into a seamless experience with multiple options, from drones and autonomous delivery robots to in-house delivery fleets and third-party logistics providers. Grocery retailers are partnering with various logistics companies, investing in delivery technologies and expanding their own fleets to increase their delivery capabilities, streamline operations, and meet customer expectations for quick and reliable delivery. 

Meijer has expanded its home delivery service area, tripling its range from an approximately 20-minute radius from its stores to 60 minutes. This extended delivery zone makes the service available to nearly 4 million additional households across the Midwest, with items delivered in as little as three hours. DoorDash is growing its list of small and medium-sized grocers across the U.S., with five new grocery partnerships for on-demand delivery. DoorDash recently launched new features including the ability to import grocery lists and the option to add items from multiple nearby stores prior to checkout for a bundled order without extra delivery fees.

Companies are developing innovative fulfillment and distribution technologies, enabling grocers to improve productivity, increase operational efficiency, and expedite fulfillment processes. AutoStore recently introduced an automated fulfillment system for sub-zero temperatures. The new system is built to help retailers manage the growing demand for online orders by automating the storage and retrieval of fresh, chilled and frozen goods, meeting the varying temperature requirements of grocery products in one solution.

Walmart is adding four highly automated perishable distribution centers around the country and adding automated technology to five others to increase capacity for fresh products. The technology will help build pallets that are engineered to optimize efficiency for merchandising at the store level and minimize product damage. The automated distribution centers can store twice as many cases and process more than twice as many cases per hour than a traditional perishables distribution center. Walmart has increasingly focused on the quality of its perishables offering to better compete with traditional grocers.

Retailers that embrace these changes, by leveraging technology, offering fast and reliable delivery services, and catering to evolving consumer preferences, will be the ones that succeed in the fast-evolving grocery industry. For consumers, this means a faster, more convenient, and personalized grocery shopping experience, while for retailers, it’s an opportunity to attract customers and shape the future of grocery shopping.

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