Bright lights, beeping cash registers and annoyed looks in crowded aisles - shopping at supermarkets and discounters is often pure stress. No wonder that people in Germany are increasingly ordering their groceries and everyday products via app or online. Now there is movement again in the food delivery service offerings. An overview.
What is changing among the providers?
Amazon has been delivering fresh groceries to its customers on the same day in Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich since the end of October. The company said it is also planning to expand to other cities.
For Prime members, delivery within four hours is free from 29 euros. If the order value is less, a fee of 3.99 euros will apply. If you don't have a Prime membership, you pay just under 10 euros, regardless of the shopping cart value. If you are in an even greater hurry, you can book a 2-hour window. But that costs extra for everyone.
Rewe started “immediate delivery” in mid-September. Purchases are delivered directly from the markets to customers via the Uber Eats, Wolt and Lieferando platforms. It should take a maximum of an hour and initially started in Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg and Jena.
Grocery trading is not new for Amazon. The group started the “Amazon Fresh” delivery service in 2017, but discontinued it at the end of 2024. At that time, the company said it wanted to focus on the growing shelf-stable food business. Now Amazon is making a new attempt.
Why are traders investing now?
“It is the last bastion in stationary retail that is not yet heavily penetrated by digital,” says Frank Düssler, press spokesman for the Federal Association of E-Commerce and Mail Order Germany (BEVH). There is still a lot of potential here. So it makes sense to move into this area and get a piece of the “giant cake”.
But the online grocery sector is not an easy industry, emphasizes Düssler. The market entry hurdles are high. In order to deliver fresh food, you need, among other things, good logistics structures. Retailers like Rewe and Amazon already had these.
According to Düssler, it is impossible to predict whether they will be successful. However, the conditions are now much better. The consumer base is larger and buying groceries online has become more natural for many people than it was a few years ago.
How is the online grocery market developing?
According to market research firm NIQ, consumers are ordering more everyday products (FMCG) such as groceries online. The online food business recently grew by 11.8 percent, while stationary retail only grew by 2.2 percent. Even product groups such as baby food that are experiencing losses in stores are growing online.
According to NIQ, this is also due to changing shopping habits. According to market researchers, consumers are ordering food and drinks online more often, and average spending per buyer has increased. However, the online share of total FMCG sales is only just under nine percent.
How many consumers use delivery services and why?
Stationary grocery stores remain the first choice, as a study by the retail research institute IFH Cologne shows. Despite growing online offerings, there is still a lot of reluctance to buy food online, it is said.
According to a survey conducted in July, 71 percent have not used an online grocery service in the past six months. Many people justify this by saying that they want to see, touch and smell fresh goods before purchasing, or they find delivery fees and minimum order values to be unnecessary additional costs.
However, 29 percent have used online grocery services in the past six months. The most frequently cited reasons: saving time in everyday life, reducing the burden of carrying heavy shopping bags and crates of drinks and independence from opening times. 13 percent of users buy almost exclusively online. The IFH Cologne conducted a representative survey of 500 consumers between the ages of 18 and 69.
Are there other models too?
The Dutch provider Picnic introduced the “Picnic Family” subscription model throughout Germany at the beginning of November. Depending on the tariff, the subscription costs between 4.99 and 6.99 euros per month. Subscribers receive, among other things, preferred delivery windows and discounts on fresh fruit and vegetables when shopping. The online supermarket Bottle Post recently announced that it would double its grocery range from 4,000 to 8,000 items.
What are the other supermarkets doing?
The discounter Aldi Nord says that there are no plans to introduce a delivery service. Aldi Süd, on the other hand, has been testing one regionally for several years in several cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, including Duisburg, Oberhausen and Mönchengladbach. Lidl does not yet offer a grocery delivery service.
Frank Düssler from the BEVH industry association is convinced: the discounter around the corner or the big city supermarket also has a future. "The German can't let go of his supermarket." Even if online retail grows, stationary supermarkets will survive.
