Grocery Delivery Brands See Surge in Social Media Engagements

As Americans continue to shelter in place amid the coronavirus pandemic, all of the major grocery delivery services have experienced a more than 28,000% increase in engagement over a two-month time frame (March-May 1) from the previous two months, according to a report from international social media analytics firm Talkwalker. The five major brands had 7 million engagements in that time period, versus 25,000 engagements between Jan. 1 and Feb. 29.

“If grocery delivery was a niche business for the workaholics, it is now an essential service for the sick and the elderly,” noted Todd Grossman, CEO Americas at New York-based Talkwalker.

Overall, the company’s report found that there have been 670,000 mentions of grocery deliveries relating to five delivery services, with the top two being San Francisco-based Instacart, at 572,000 mentions (85%), and Birmingham, Ala.-based Shipt, at 65,000 mentions (10%). The remaining 5% of mentions were divided among Walmart, FreshDirect/Foodkick and Peapod.

Despite considerable discussion in the news media about whether people are opting for delivery because they fear store overcrowding, social media mentions of crowded stores have numbered only in the dozens over the past two months, according to Talkwalker, while mentions of snaring a delivery slot have totaled 11,000 among the 20,000 for all grocery delivery brands.

“That is the big issue facing customers these days, and people are talking about it on social media,” asserted Grossman, referencing various examples on Twitter.

Although a lesser trend, contactless delivery is notable in that it now exists as a topic for discussion, with 1,300 mentions over the previous two months across all of the delivery brands. The other top-trending themes related to grocery delivery brands were shortages, wrong orders and delays.