The most popular product category purchased online during the early stages of the pandemic was food (via grocery) and food delivery or takeaway. Takeaway was boosted by a surge in restaurants offering curbside service. Dry tea and coffee capsules were popular e-commerce products.
E-commerce sales of food or beverages to American adults grew 9% in April, increasing from 27% in February to 36%, according to Bizrate Insights.
The number of customers ordering food online was even higher among frequent Internet users (61.5%), according to a consumer survey by Red Points on the “Impact of COVID-19 on Ecommerce Sales.”
In April, 44% of Amazon Prime members ordered food or beverages, a rate that has continued to increase following a setback in February as distribution facilities struggled to meet demand.
Kathy Cummins, head of data analytics at Hinge Global, told webinar participants that online purchases, including curbside pickup, have dropped slightly but remain higher than pre-pandemic.
While total coffee industry sales are growing at 4.8%, sales of coffee on Amazon are up 38.6%, based on Hinge Global data. April's total coffee sales were $107.6 million, with capsules comprising $89.6 million and ground coffee account for $18 million in sales, according to Cummins.
“Sales in pure-play e-commerce such as Amazon have continued to grow,” Cummings told attendees during the National Coffee Association webinar on e-commerce. “Amazon is and will continue to dominate in online coffee sales, with annual market size of $1.08 billion in the US, and 37% annual growth,” said Cummins. Ground coffee is growing at 32%, but coffee in capsules, often sold in bulk packaging, is growing at a much faster 38% compound annual growth rate.
Mo Sardella, marketing director at GS Haly, told Forbes that online sales of specialty tea and herbs spiked during the early days of the pandemic.
“We have seen a huge spike in home tea consumption via grocery and online outlets. Our customers with a well-established online presence are doing exceedingly well,” says Sardella, adding that “customers saw an increase in online sales between 100% to 300% in April alone,” he said.
In June, Sardella said that GS Haly “was still experiencing strong sales numbers from customers who have well-established e-commerce presence and active social engagement with its customers. Some customers, especially those with a mix of online and grocery distribution, see sustained increases in sales across the board. While I have not received any recent reports to confirm actual numbers, I have anecdotally seen increases ranging from 75%-180% for some of our more well-established clients,” he said.
“Traditional walk-in business is still very slow, especially with dine-in foodservice iced tea distribution. In areas where dine-in options are reopening, and as the weather warms, we have seen very modest increases in sales, but still nowhere near pre-COVID numbers,” said Sardella.
Setbacks in curbing the spread of coronavirus caused some restaurants to reconsider dine-in, but The NPD Group calculates that 74% of restaurant units were in geographies where some level of on-premises dining was permitted. That should increase to 77% in late June, with 85% of restaurants reopen to dine-in services by mid-July.