Rapid Grocery Delivery Goes Mainstream as Online Share Hits 20.9%

Speed has moved from add-on to default

For most of the past decade, getting groceries within the hour was a fix for emergencies, like a missing ingredient or a sick child. Two sets of research published this year suggest that has changed. Taken together, they show rapid delivery has become a normal way for U.S. households to buy food.

In July, Coresight Research said rapid delivery had grown into a "mainstream fulfillment option" in its latest U.S. online grocery survey. It found that 37.9% of online grocery shoppers did "most" or "all, or almost all" of their digital grocery shopping through a rapid service over the previous year.21 The survey covered more than 2,000 U.S. consumers in June. Coresight defined rapid delivery as same-day delivery or delivery in under two hours.24 The largest group, 25.5% of respondents, said they use rapid delivery for all or almost all of their online grocery orders, and just over 12% said they use it for most.24

On October 15, Brick Meets Click released third-quarter data that gives the trend a sales figure. U.S. online grocery sales rose 20.7% from a year earlier. It was the eighth straight quarter of growth above 20%.31 Online's share of total grocery spending reached a record 20.9%, while in-store sales fell year over year.32

What the numbers actually show

The two studies measure different things, but they point in the same direction. Coresight tracks shopper behavior and stated preferences. Brick Meets Click tracks spending and how often people order. Both find that delivery is gaining at the expense of pickup.

In Coresight's survey, 66.7% of respondents said they mainly had online groceries delivered over the past year, compared with 31.2% who mainly picked them up. That 35.5-point gap has kept widening since 2022, when the two methods were roughly even.24 Brick Meets Click's quarterly figures match this. Delivery grew more than 30% and accounted for about three-quarters of the third-quarter increase, adding more than five points of sales share. Pickup grew only in the mid-single digits.31

The key point is that rapid delivery is no longer reserved for top-up trips. Coresight found shoppers using it across the full range of household needs. Nearly 53% had bought packaged non-fresh food this way, just over half had bought fresh fruit and vegetables, and 49% had bought fresh dairy, meat, fish or eggs.22 The firm read the strong figures for perishables as a sign of growing trust. Shoppers say shorter delivery windows keep food fresher and let them restock produce without a separate store trip.22

The user base is also loyal. More than 45% of rapid-delivery users said their usage rose over the past 12 months, and another 36% said it stayed the same.24 Brick Meets Click found a similar pattern. Average order frequency rose nearly 14% in the quarter, and the share of users likely to reorder from the same delivery or pickup service within 30 days rose from 56% in 2024 to 61% in 2025 and 62% this year.32 In September, monthly active users reached nearly 64% of U.S. households, a record, and 81% of households have now bought groceries online at least once.33

Walmart and Amazon set the pace

The biggest companies are driving much of the change. Coresight says Walmart Express has been the most-used rapid delivery service since 2023. Amazon's usage showed "one of the strongest rebounds," rising to 42% of respondents in 2026 from just under 35% a year earlier.21 Among third-party platforms, DoorDash passed Instacart for the first time, with 45.2% of respondents using it against Instacart's 43.9%.25

Brick Meets Click's spring data helps explain why. It found Walmart closing in on 40% of U.S. online grocery sales, driven largely by orders delivered within an hour of checkout. Amazon gained share by adding fresh groceries to its same-day network.16 In the first quarter, same-day orders made up nearly 80% of delivery orders, and fulfillment in one hour or less made up 18%.19

The companies' own statements support this. Walmart's CEO told investors in September that about 70% of its home deliveries arrive the same day or faster, and that deliveries in 30 minutes or less had doubled year over year. He noted that these faster deliveries bring in more fee income. Amazon is expanding Amazon Now, its 30-minute service that includes fresh groceries, to dozens more U.S. cities this year. The company says the service will reach "tens of millions" of people.30 It costs Prime members $3.99 per order and other customers $13.99.30

Shoppers are also spreading their spending across more retailers. Brick Meets Click found that 28% of monthly online grocery users who shopped at supermarkets and hard discounters also bought groceries from Walmart in the same month in August 2026, up from nearly 15% in August 2020. Nineteen percent also bought from Amazon.

Why it matters: proximity loses its edge

Regional supermarkets face a real strategic problem. Brick Meets Click partner David Bishop has said rapid delivery weakens the advantage regional grocers have always had in physical retail: being close to the customer.17 For decades, a nearby store won the quick trip. When an app can deliver from a micro-fulfillment center or a Walmart store within half an hour, that location stops mattering as much.

Coresight's advice to retailers is to market rapid delivery as a full-basket option rather than a convenience add-on.21 That is a reasonable recommendation, but it is much easier for companies with large logistics networks. Bishop has put the challenge plainly: traditional grocers, especially regional ones, need to find ways to grow and stay relevant without giving up margins or hurting the customer experience.19

Access is another factor that gets less attention. DoorDash reports that more than 4.5 million consumers have added SNAP cards to its platform, and nearly 75,000 stores now accept the benefit. Its SNAP users are twice as likely to live in a food desert.4 This suggests the spread of fast delivery is not only a story about wealthier shoppers.

The UK version of the same story

The same pattern is playing out in Britain, mainly through partnerships between supermarkets and delivery platforms. Tesco has launched nationwide on Deliveroo with deliveries in as little as 20 minutes. Its in-house Whoosh service saw sales rise 51% last year, now serves about 1.5 million customers and covers more than 70% of the UK population.10 Aldi began an eight-store Deliveroo trial on October 6 and plans a national rollout in early 2027.10 Citi analysts estimate Tesco's growth in on-demand grocery could add 0.8 percentage points to group earnings growth in each of the next two years. They expect it to cost Sainsbury's around 0.3% of UK grocery revenue in each year.7

Where the evidence diverges

Not every source agrees that speed is the whole story. Mintel's 2026 UK report agrees that rapid delivery has moved from a last-resort service to a routine one. But it found that around 65% of online grocery shoppers would accept slower delivery in exchange for a wider range of products. Mintel concludes that having the right items in the basket now matters more than speed alone.29 Bishop's own Q3 comments make a similar point. He said some newer services focus on faster delivery while others focus on helping customers avoid paying more than necessary.31

Definitions also vary. Coresight's "rapid" category includes all same-day delivery, which is a much broader group than the 30-minute services from Amazon and Walmart.24 So the 37.9% figure mostly reflects a shift toward same-day delivery, not true ultra-fast delivery. Brick Meets Click's narrower one-hour-or-less figure was 18% of delivery orders in the first quarter.19 That is a more realistic measure of how much demand is truly instant. Paid market-sizing reports are less useful still. One forecaster's own listing gives global instant-grocery estimates that differ by an order of magnitude.6

The verdict

Calling rapid delivery "mainstream" is accurate, with one qualification. The shift is mostly toward same-day delivery as standard, with under-an-hour delivery growing quickly within it. The more important finding is that online grocery is gaining share while in-store spending falls, and that companies with networks able to deliver in hours or minutes are taking most of that growth. For regional grocers, simply offering rapid delivery is no longer enough to stand out. Their best options are likely price, product range, and partnerships with platforms that can match Walmart's and Amazon's speed.