The online grocery market may be losing traction with $7.9 billion in total sales for February – a 10.5% drop compared to last year, according to the latest Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey. Lower average order values (AOV) were the central catalyst fueling the overall downward y/y sales trends, though not all order receiving methods saw equal fates. 

📦 Delivery was the only segment to grow sales YOY, up 4.7% aided by a strong rebound in monthly active users (MAUs) versus the year prior. Comparatively, ship-to-home dropped 15.4% and pickup fell 12.8%. 

⬆️ In February, the weighted AOV across all segments dropped 10% y/y and no method was spared from the downturn: ship-to-home and pickup both fell 13% while delivery contracted by 7% versus last year. Most retailers and formats also saw lower AOVs versus last year to varying degrees – retail giant Walmart had a relatively small 2% dip in AOV for pickup and delivery orders while the supermarket format posted a steep 15% drop in AOV for pickup and delivery. 

⬇️ In spite of the spending slump, all three order receiving methods expanded their respective MAU bases. The gains were primarily driven by an increase in the share of MAUs who received orders via multiple methods throughout February as the overall user base slipped slightly, down 30 basis points (bps). 

💭 “Convenience remains one of the primary motivations for shopping online for groceries, however, for some customers, cost considerations are now weighing more heavily on their decision on how to shop. This means that the explicit costs associated with eGrocery services are more likely to impact how [they] grocery shop,” said Brick and Click partner David Bishop in the report. 

🛍️ Though the total volume of eGrocery orders was flat on a y/y basis, delivery’s strong performance (+13%) offset the order volume declines seen by pickup (-7%) and ship-to-home (-3%). According to analysts, the jump in delivery was fueled by the expansion of its MAU base to the year prior rather than an increase in order frequency. 

📊As a result of these shifts in segment order volume and the overall declines in AOV, pickup’s share of eGrocery sales contracted to 43.4% in February, falling by 468 bps. Meanwhile, delivery grew its share by 570 bps, finishing the month with 39.3% and ship-to-home ended February with 17.3% of eGrocery sales. 

🛒Perhaps the most noteworthy part of the report is that during February, the composite grocery and mass repeat intent rate for pickup and delivery slid 850 bps to 56.2%, dropping to one of the lowest levels in over two years. Analysts said the decline was driven by second- and third- time customers who were significantly less likely to use the same service again within the next 30 days. 

What does this mean for the state of eGrocery in the near term? Only time will tell.

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Food delivery startup Wonder completed a $700 million funding round, founder and CEO Marc Lore announced Tuesday in a LinkedIn post. 

📱 The New York-based company partners with dozens of restaurants to offer an extensive menu of exclusive offerings prepared by top chefs that are delivered direct-to-consumer within a half hour. 

📈 The company operates 11 brick-and-mortar locations in the Northeast and aims to expand to 35 units by the end of the year and 90 by the end of 2025. 

📦 Wonder’s milestones over the past year include acquiring meal kit pioneer Blue Apron for $130 million and establishing a partnership with Walmart to open storefronts in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

💰 Serial entrepreneur Lore poured $100 million in the round and was joined by existing shareholders and new backers. The company plans to invest in R&D and proprietary technology to enhance operational efficiencies, according to Lore, who noted the

Chickpeas have popped up in a variety of products, including allergen-friendly alternatives to pasta, yogurt and peanut butter. But what about in a bowl of grain-free hot cereal?

💪 Los Angeles-based startup ChiChi Foods is harnessing the power of the chickpea to create a higher-protein replacement for traditional oatmeal.

💡 Co-founder and CEO Chiara Munzi shared with Nosh how the brand originated in her college dorm room, the challenges of communicating the concept to consumers, and her aspirations for reimagining more breakfast staples.

Watch the full interview on Nosh.

Sustainable agriculture financing company Mad Capital announced the launch of its $50 million Perennial Fund II (get it? Perennial…) that will offer loans to farmers transitioning to regenerative practices. The “tailored” loans are intended to increase profits to farmers while discouraging biodiversity loss and increasing soil health.

💸 The fund has already received early commitments from seventeen investment groups including Builders Vision, The Rockefeller Foundation and others.

💭 Mad Capital’s second Perennial Fund gives “humanity at shot at producing an abundance of healthy food,” said CEO and co-founder Brandon Welch. ““We are aiming to build a bridge between two distant worlds that need one another to transition our food system — Wall Street and organic farmers.”

As the plant-based alternative segment has matured, a handful of brands have tried to cross category lines and TiNDLE is the latest challenger. 

🍗The Singapore-based company introduced a new line of stuffed alt-Chicken Parmigiana and Garlic & Herb products at the show in addition to expanding beyond the freezer and into the fridge with a new Oat-based Barista Milk.

🗺️ TiNDLE co-founder, chairman and CEO, Timo Recker, spoke to BevNET and Nosh reporter Adrianne DeLuca about how the company is approaching its U.S. portfolio expansion, why it is strategizing specifically for a U.S. consumer and what else is coming down the innovation pipeline. 

Watch the full interview on Nosh.

When RIND Snacks debuted in 2018, founder and CEO Matt Weiss won plaudits for creating an innovative and eye-catching brand of upcycled fruit snacks. Six years later, the New York-based entrepreneur is being lauded for transforming RIND into a vertically integrated healthy snack platform. Industry acclaim is nice, but Matt will say that his primary focus is to create lasting value for his company, shareholders and consumers.

Listen to the episode now.