A longtime customer tells you she loves your store but has started ordering from a delivery app on busy weeks. She isn't leaving because of price or quality. She is leaving because on a Tuesday night, the app was easier.
To add online ordering and local delivery to a grocery store, start with curbside or in-store pickup, use an online store that shares inventory with your POS, set up a simple picking routine with time slots, then add delivery in a tight zone with fees that cover your cost. Launch to your regulars first and fix problems before you advertise.
Key takeaways
- Online grocery keeps growing: Brick Meets Click reported record US online grocery sales of $12.7 billion in December 2025, up 32% from a year earlier.
- Online orders reached 19% of weekly grocery spending in December 2025, according to the same Brick Meets Click survey, the highest level since May 2020.
- Curbside or in-store pickup is the easiest starting point because it uses your existing shelves and staff, with no delivery cost.
- An online store that shares one inventory with your POS prevents overselling and painful substitutions.
- Third-party marketplaces bring reach but take a cut and keep much of the customer relationship, so many independents treat them as a side channel.
How big is online grocery shopping now?
Online grocery is no longer a pandemic habit that faded. Brick Meets Click's Grocery Shopper Survey, as reported by Produce Market Guide, found US online grocery sales hit a record $12.7 billion in December 2025, up 32% year over year. Online orders made up 19% of weekly grocery spending that month, up 4.3 percentage points from December 2024.
The same survey found shoppers ordering more often, with an average of 2.9 orders per monthly active user in December 2025, and more of them mixing pickup, delivery and ship-to-home.
For an independent grocer, the question is simple. Your customers are already shopping online. When they do, will they find your store or a national chain?
Should a grocery store use its own online store or a delivery marketplace?
Both can work, but they serve different goals.
| Option | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Your own online store (first-party) | You own the customer relationship, your brand and your pricing | You handle setup, picking and marketing |
| Third-party marketplace | Fast reach to app users | Commissions or markups, limited customer data, less control over the experience |
Marketplace fees vary by platform and contract, so ask each one for its exact commission, markups and fees in writing and model them against your margin before signing. With grocery net margins of only a few percent, a commission on every order can turn an online sale into a loss.
That is why many independents build their own online store as the main channel and use marketplaces, if at all, as a supplement.
Which grocery fulfillment model should you start with?
Choose a fulfillment model that fits the staff and space you have today.
Curbside or in-store pickup
Pickup is the easiest place to start. Customers order online, staff pick from your existing shelves and stage orders in a pickup area or bring them to the car. There is no delivery cost, and you serve online customers from the inventory you already have.
Your own delivery
Delivery adds a transport step. You can use your own drivers or a delivery service such as Uber Direct, and you keep control of the customer experience while covering the delivery cost. Delivery works best where homes are close enough together to serve efficiently.
Marketplace listing
Listing your products on a delivery marketplace gives you immediate reach. The trade-offs are the cost and the limited customer data described above.
How do you launch online ordering for a grocery store? A five-step plan
Step 1: Choose an online store that syncs with your POS
Everything starts with inventory. If your website shows items as available that are actually sold out, staff spend their time calling customers about substitutions, and customers lose trust.
Use an online store that draws on the same inventory as your registers, so in-store and online sales come out of one count. Test this before launch by selling an item in-store and checking that the website updates.
Step 2: Build a catalog people can search
Online shoppers search for "gluten-free pasta" or "halal chicken," so names, categories and photos matter. Add filters for the attributes your customers care about, such as organic, vegan, kosher or allergen-free. Describe fresh items clearly, including cut, size and how weighed items are priced.
Start with your best sellers and staples rather than every SKU on day one, then expand.
Step 3: Set up a picking routine
Fulfillment is where online grocery succeeds or fails.
- Set aside a staging area with room for chilled and frozen orders.
- Pick in store order, aisle by aisle, so pickers don't retrace their steps.
- Bag as you pick to save handling.
- Once volume grows, pick several orders in one trip.
- Check each order against the list before it leaves.
Offer pickup or delivery time slots and cap the number of orders per slot to match your staffing. Overbooked slots lead to late orders, and late orders lead to bad reviews.
Step 4: Set delivery zones and fees
If you deliver, start with a tight zone around the store. Price delivery so it covers your real cost. Subsidizing delivery to win customers is tempting but hard to sustain on grocery margins. Decide up front whether you will absorb part of the fee for larger orders or loyal customers.
Step 5: Launch small, measure and adjust
Soft-launch to a small group, such as your regular customers, before you promote the service widely. Track three numbers from the first week:
- Order accuracy: orders filled with the right items and quantities
- On-time rate: orders ready or delivered within the promised slot
- Customer feedback: what pickup and delivery customers say
In the early weeks, those numbers matter more than total order volume.
What mistakes should grocers avoid when going online?
- Launching with inaccurate inventory. Fix your counts first, especially for fast movers.
- Uploading every SKU at once. A smaller, accurate catalog beats a huge one full of out-of-stocks.
- No slot limits. Promising more orders than your team can pick is the fastest way to lose online customers.
- Free delivery by default. Know your cost per delivery before you decide to absorb it.
- No owner for online orders. Name one person on each shift who is responsible for online orders.
How does ShelfPerks support grocery online ordering and delivery?
ShelfPerks includes built-in e-commerce on its Plus and Premium plans, with one inventory shared between your store and your website. Customers can choose in-store, curbside or parking-lot pickup, or direct delivery.
For delivery, the Uber Direct integration handles orders placed through your own ShelfPerks-powered online store:
- Same-day delivery, including delivery in under 2 hours, or scheduled delivery up to 30 days ahead
- Delivery fees as low as $6.99 per delivery
- A typical delivery radius of 10 miles and packages up to 50 lb
- You choose whether to absorb the fee or pass it to the customer
The Plus plan and above also keep the point of sale running offline for up to 24 hours if the internet drops, then sync, which helps when you are juggling a busy store and online orders at the same time.
You can try ShelfPerks with a 14-day free trial of Premium features, no credit card required. Plan details are on the pricing page. For a broader view, see our posts on setting up an online store with ShelfPerks and how independent grocers compete with Walmart and Kroger.
Frequently asked questions
What is the easiest way for a grocery store to start selling online?
Start with curbside or in-store pickup. Customers order online, staff pick from your existing shelves and there is no delivery cost, so you can learn the picking routine before adding delivery.
How much grocery shopping happens online?
Brick Meets Click reported that online orders made up 19% of weekly US grocery spending in December 2025, with record online grocery sales of $12.7 billion that month, up 32% year over year.
Should a small grocery store use Instacart or its own website?
A marketplace gives fast reach but charges commissions or markups and keeps much of the customer relationship. Your own online store keeps the customer, the brand and the pricing with you, so many independents use it as their main channel and treat marketplaces as a supplement.
How do you prevent out-of-stock items in online grocery orders?
Use an online store that shares one inventory with your POS, so every in-store sale updates what the website shows. Keep counts accurate on fast movers and start with a smaller catalog of reliably stocked items.
