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      Cologne, 11th September 2025

      Digital grocery shopping has undergone a profound transformation in recent years - the pandemic and technological innovations have significantly accelerated developments. What began as a short-term fallback strategy is now an integral part of the retail world. Online shopping is also becoming increasingly convenient. Households with more than two people in particular use digital delivery services much more frequently than other groups. However, doubts about freshness, lack of product selection and additional costs remain key hurdles that retailers and the industry need to address in a targeted manner.

      "If you want to win in online grocery retail, you need to deliver three things: noticeable time savings, reliable and traceable freshness and transparent costs. There are clear segment differences according to urban/rural area, age, lifestyle and stage of life. Retailers would be well advised to develop targeted, segmented offers and align digital services more closely with specific everyday realities," says study author Tobias Röding, EHI, explaining the results of the KPMG Consumer Barometer's focus study on online grocery retail (02/25; Shopping behavior in grocery retail).

      Young and vegan

      The Consumer Barometer 02/2025 already showed that customers use online grocery shopping to varying degrees, depending on their dietary preferences or age. Almost a quarter (24%) of younger consumers aged between 18 and 33 use online grocery delivery services. Among 50 to 65-year-olds, this figure halves to 12%. There is an even greater divide between urban and rural groups. In the city, online delivery services are used 3.5 times more frequently on average.

      Vegan customers in particular use delivery services more frequently than average - they make the most intensive use of all delivery models surveyed. Vegans shop most frequently in online-only supermarkets: 36% of vegan customers use these frequently to very frequently. In second place are quick-commerce services, which are used frequently to very frequently by 32% of vegan respondents.

      In general, it can be said that the larger the household, the greater the affinity for buying food online. In particular, use increases sharply from 3 people upwards. The results also show the benefits and hurdles. Saving time, convenience and a general simplification are the most important advantages. The main disadvantages cited are not being able to choose the individual products themselves, doubts about freshness and additional costs. Environmental impact comes in 4th place among the perceived obstacles.

      One in five people now use online food delivery services, particularly frequently in multi-person households with correspondingly large and varied shopping baskets. A third of consumers would like to buy groceries online more often in the coming years. Retailers and manufacturers have the opportunity to actively drive this growing demand with flexible distribution and digital technologies.
      Stephan Fetsch
      Stephan Fetsch

      Partner, Deal Advisory, EMA und German Head of Retail & Consumer Goods

      KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft

      The focus study on online grocery retail is available to Download free of charge. The digital version of the Consumer Barometer is available as a free subscription at www.kpmg.de/consumerbarometer.

      About KPMG



      KPMG is an organization of independent member firms with more than 273,000 employees in 143 countries and territories. KPMG is also one of the leading auditing and advisory firms in Germany and has over 14,000 employees at 27 locations. Our services are divided into the Audit, Tax and Advisory divisions. Audit focuses on the auditing of consolidated and annual financial statements. Tax stands for KPMG's tax advisory activities. The Advisory division is divided into the areas of Consulting, Deal Advisory and Performance & Strategy and bundles our high level of expertise in business, regulatory and transaction-oriented topics.


      About the EHI

       

      The EHI is a research, education and consulting institute for the retail sector and its partners with around 80 employees and an international network of 850 member companies in the retail, consumer and capital goods industries as well as the service sector. The EHI is also a shareholder of GS1 Germany and Agraya and a partner of Messe Düsseldorf at important trade fairs such as EuroShop. The President of the EHI is Markus Tkotz, head of Markant, and the Managing Director is Michael Gerling.

      Press contact

      Clemens Reisbeck
      KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
      T +49 89 9282 1722
      creisbeck@kpmg.com

      EHI
      Dr. Tobias Röding, Projektleiter
      T +49 221 57993-362
      roeding@ehi.org

      EHI
      Ute Holtmann, Leiterin Public Relations
      T +49 221 57993-42
      holtmann@ehi.org

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