Online grocery market in Canada - statistics & facts

Supermarkets and grocery stores have seen their retail sales steadily increase in Canada over the last few years, reaching nine billion Canadian dollars in June 2022. Nevertheless, food accounted for less than three percent of the e-commerce market that year. Food's share of e-commerce sales was projected to increase to a little over four percent by 2025, marking a significant increase from only 1.57 percent in 2017.

E-commerce giants outdoing national players

In Canada, Walmart and Amazon were the most popular online retailers of groceries and beverages in 2022. As a global online marketplace, Amazon could offer a greater merchandise variety. The sheer number of SKUs of packaged food offered by Amazon overshadowed that of its competitors by a wide margin. In addition, the Canadian division of Walmart registered three-digit growth rates in e-commerce sales in 2021. In 2020, national grocery retailers like Loblaws, Sobey, and Metro did well in terms of total grocery sales, but their revenue growth from online channels is stabilizing, as quarterly data from Quebec-based retailer Metro suggests. While Metro's quarterly online food sales appeared to stagnate at the beginning of 2022, the Canadian grocery retailer saw its sales rebound in the fourth quarter of 2022, despite a marked increase in its food basket inflation during the same period.

How did food inflation impact online grocery shopping in Canada?

In 2022, both online and offline shopping behavior were impacted by exogenous market shocks. Still reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, global supply chains were dealt a further blow with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. That year, rising prices for groceries and products being out-of-stock were the main issues impacting shopping behavior among consumers in Canada. With some 59 percent of online shoppers in Canada reporting being affected by rising grocery prices in June 2022, this figure surpassed that of many other countries on the global scale. Canada also recorded some of the highest rates of online shoppers being unable to purchase products due to out-of-stocks. In fact, needed grocery products being out-of-stock were the main cause of low satisfaction with online grocery services among Canadian shoppers, followed by expensive fees. Edging towards a double-digit figure, Canada’s monthly food inflation rate experienced a steep increase, reaching 8.8 percent in May 2022. As a result, many Canadians have reported changing their purchasing habits due to increasing food prices. For example, around 46 percent of Canadian shoppers reported switching to cheaper, lower quality brands in response to food price inflation in the country.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Lynn Beyrouthy, May 5, 2023

Key insights

Retail e-commerce revenue
62bn USD
Food as share of total retail e-commerce sales
2.5%
Value of packaged food and beverage e-commerce market in Canada
1.6bn CAN
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Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Leading groceries e-commerce sites in Canada as of March 2021, by stock keeping units (SKU) of packaged food (in 1,000s)

Online Retail

Leading groceries e-commerce sites in Canada 2021, by SKU of packaged food

Online grocery & beverage shopping by store brand in Canada as of September 2023

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Online grocery & beverage shopping by store brand in Canada 2023

Percentage change of Metro online food sales in Canada from 1st quarter 2021 to 3rd quarter 2023

Online Retail

Quarterly change of Metro online food sales in Canada 2023

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