The top 15 grocery retailers in the United States in 2022 are announced! Amazon falls to third place!

According to the sixth annual Retailer Preference Index released by customer data science Dunnhumby, HEB surpassed Amazon to become the highest-scoring grocery retailer in the United States in 2022. Costco followed HEB in second place. Amazon fell to third place, and Wegmans ranked fourth for three consecutive years.

While HEB ranks first, Amazon still leads when it comes to online shopping, though other online retailers are working to close the gap. The study found that the top six online retailers in the U.S. are Amazon, Amazon Fresh, Target, Sam's Club, Walmart, and Walmart Neighborhood Market.

The 15 retailers with the highest overall customer preference index scores in the Dunnhumby RPI are:

1. HEB

2. Costco

3. Amazon

4. Wegmans

5. Sam's Club

6. Market Basket

7. Amazon Fresh

8. Trader Joes

9. Winco

10. BJ's Wholesale

11. Target

12. Aldi

13. Shoprite

14. Walmart Neighborhood Market

15. Walmart

The Dunnhumby study also found (60 retailers were surveyed):

Competition among U.S. grocers is fierce. In 2020 and 2021, the pandemic helped propel and solidify Amazon's lead as a grocery retailer, as Amazon is committed to saving customers time and providing an online shopping experience that is more convenient. But in 2022, HEB regained the top spot with its superior ability to combine better savings and a more premium experience/variety.

Digitalization has staying power. The pandemic has increased the percentage of Americans buying groceries online from 39% to 50%—an increase of 11 percentage points. Despite record inflation, more than half of Americans still buy groceries online. In 2022, 9.4 million more households will use omnichannel shopping than in 2019.

The top quartile of retailers outperform the rest of the market in terms of providing superior customer benefits and savings. The average compound average growth rate (CAGR) for the top quartile of retailers through 2022 is 7.3%, while the CAGR for the bottom three quartiles is 3.2%.

Club stores are gaining momentum. In the top 10, club stores occupy three positions, including Costco, Sam's Club and J's Wholesale.

BJ's Wholesale was the retailer with the largest gain in ranking over the past three years, climbing from No. 27 to No. 10. Schnucks climbed 16 spots and is now No. 2. Other companies that did not rank in the top quartile but grew were Food Lion (up 14 spots), Food4Less/FoodsCo (up 12 spots), Weis (up 10 spots) and Food City (up 9 spots).

Editor ✎ Nicole/

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