According to the latest Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey, Walmart captured a record 37% share of the U.S. online grocery market in the second quarter of 2024 and has steadily increased its share over the past few years while traditional supermarkets have lost ground.

Since the second quarter of 2021, Walmart’s share of the e-grocery market has increased by 880 basis points, while supermarkets’ share has shrunk by 700 basis points, ending the quarter at 27.3%.

According to the survey, “Walmart’s sales share (excluding Sam’s Club) began to catch up with supermarkets in early 2022,” driven by the end of the expanded child tax credit, rising inflation in home grocery stores and higher interest rates that prompted consumers to look for better deals.

“Walmart’s reputation for low prices has helped attract households seeking both the convenience of online shopping and opportunities to save money in this market,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click, in a statement. “The execution of its omnichannel strategy, along with the operational efficiencies enabled by incredibly high order demand, has enabled Walmart to consistently provide customers with the type of experiences they expect while reducing the cost of fulfilling online orders.”

In contrast, Target has seen more modest gains in revenue share in recent years, largely due to the company’s strong performance in fulfilling pickup orders and maintaining its prices between those of supermarkets and Walmart, which has helped the company remain competitive in the online grocery space.

In grocery delivery, Walmart saw a nearly 8 percentage point increase in market share as the company capitalizes on its emphasis on first-party delivery services, in part to support its Walmart+ subscription program. Overall, the bulk channel accounted for nearly half of all delivery sales in the second quarter of 2024, up nearly 10 points from supermarket share.

For in-store or curbside pickup, bulk pickup, led by Walmart, reached nearly 58% share in the second quarter of 2024, while supermarkets only reached 28% share. Pickup remains the preferred method for e-commerce grocery sales in the U.S., with a 45.5% share, down 110 basis points year-over-year.

Insider Intelligence predicted last November that Walmart’s market share in the online grocery market would rise to 26.9 percent by 2024, with Amazon currently holding 18.5 percent, although Walmart has also gained significant ground in recent years.

“Rising inflation has led consumers to look for more bargains and switch to lower-priced products, favoring Walmart over its competitors like Target and grocery delivery services,” said Brian Lau, forecast analyst at Insider Intelligence. “Of course, the fact that 90% of U.S. households have a store within 10 miles has also helped boost Walmart’s grocery sales both offline and online, as it gives the company more curbside and in-store pickup locations.”

Lau said that while Amazon has “the most comprehensive logistics network” to support online grocery, Whole Foods “doesn’t have the mass appeal it needs” and that Amazon Fresh’s pause on expansion shows that “Amazon is still trying to find a way to compete with Walmart in the grocery business, both online and offline.”

In the first quarter of fiscal 2025, Walmart’s U.S. online sales grew 22% and e-commerce losses continued to narrow, with net delivery costs per order improving nearly 40% in the U.S. In the U.S., 4.4 billion items were delivered same- or next-day over the past 12 months, with about 20% of those delivered in less than three hours.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a conference call with analysts: “Delivery times are getting faster and at the same time delivery costs are coming down.”