Grocery apps see record downloads during coronavirus outbreak

Dive Brief:

Instacart, Walmart Grocery and Shipt have seen respectively 218%, 160%, and 124% increases in average daily downloads compared to the previous month, according to research from Apptopia. This past Sunday was a record for each app, according to the report.
Target also saw a 98% jump in average daily downloads on Sunday over the average daily download in February, per Apptopia's findings.
But as grocery ordering apps rise in average daily downloads, food delivery apps have seen a decline amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The daily downloads of popular ordering apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub and Postmates declined from about 240,000 as of Feb. 15 to about 190,000 on Sunday, the company also found.

Dive Insight:

As the coronavirus outbreak continues, online grocery apps, including Peapod, are confronting overwhelming demand. Adam Blacker, Apptopia's vice president of insights, states that the reason behind this is that consumers want to come in contact with fewer people, but "still need to accumulate supplies and groceries to hunker down during a period of intense social distancing."

As consumers grow increasingly concerned about the illness, retailers like Target and Walmart have been addressing store sanitization by aggressively cleaning their stores and touchscreen technologies.

The surge in downloads comes as grocery retailers like Walmart have been working on revamping their mobile presence. Walmart, for example, partnered with Apple to introduce its Siri integration back in November. Additionally, Walmart's grocery pickup program has become a leader in curbside pickup, attracting consumers who prefer convenience over in-store shopping.

As COVID-19, a disease caused by a member of the coronavirus family, upends retail, it's unclear how the industry will fare during and after the international pandemic. Per a Coresight survey in early March, 74.6% of respondents said they are planning to limit their trips to the mall if the sitation got worse, but many retailers in the past few days have decided to temporarily close stores as social distancing is encouraged.