Although CPG e-commerce’s share of total CPG sales has been growing in recent years, historically, e-commerce has only accounted for a small fraction of total CPG sales. That said, during the COVID-19 pandemic, certain CPG categories have seen significant growth in e-commerce sales, per a report [download page] from Profitero, citing Nielsen and Rakuten panel data.
Comparing CPG e-commerce sales between March and April of this year to the same period in 2019, the most significant relative growth can be seen in the Grocery category. In 2019, this category accounted for 4.4% of total category sales, and this share has grown by 46% year-over-year to 6.4% share of total sales in 2020.
This growth is not surprising, as consumers are not only spending more on groceries since the pandemic, but online grocery shopping has reportedly doubled in adoption during this time.
Meanwhile, e-commerce’s share of Household Care sales grew 39% over the same period in 2019, rising from 4.9% share of total category sales to 6.8%. Baby Care and Health and Beauty Care saw similar growth in their respective e-commerce share of total category sales, increasing 34% (to 18.6%) and 32% (to 21.6%), respectively.
As one of the top CPG e-commerce categories in past years, online Pet Care sales also increased, and accounted for 34.6% of total Pet Care sales in March-April 2020, up from 26.8% for the same time period in 2019.
Whether these growth rates will continue is yet to be determined, as research conducted prior to the coronavirus outbreak suggests that consumers still prefer to shop offline for certain categories including Food, Groceries and Household Goods.
The full report can be found here.
About the Data: Median e-commerce share of total sales for the 124 categories studied was 6%.
