2024 Online Grocery Shopping Trends Among Millennials and Gen Z
Last month, we unveiled the 2024 edition of The State of Online Recipes. In the report, we explore findings from a survey of U.S. consumers and data from Chicory’s recipe network to illustrate how American consumers are leveraging online recipes to simplify meal planning and inspire grocery shopping decisions.
Since last year’s edition of our survey, online recipe usage has grown to 91%. A demographic breakdown reveals that 95.7% of Millennials (ages 27-42) and 87.2% of Gen Z (ages 18-26) consumers use online recipes regularly. With the rise of recipe publications, online recipes are becoming an important source of meal and grocery shopping inspiration for these specific generations.
Let’s dive into how Millennial and Gen Z consumers are leveraging online recipes, and how these publications present a critical opportunity for CPG brands looking to leverage contextually relevant content to reach high-intent audiences.
Online Recipe Usage Is up Across the Board
Online recipe growth is on the up, and consumers are cognizant of it. 63% of Millennials explicitly say they’re using online recipes more now than they were a year ago. Don’t expect that number to slow down anytime soon. Especially when you consider over a quarter of Millennials (27.4%) are using or looking at online recipes daily.
In fact, one of the starkest differences between how the two generations leverage online recipes is when they choose to do so. Only 17% of Gen Z consumers leverage online recipes daily - instead, most younger consumers (44.7%) opt to use or look at online recipes weekly. This might point to the fact that Millennials are looking for daily recipe inspiration for their families, or are doing less weekly meal prep than their Gen Z counterparts.
You might think social media is the top source for recipe discovery, especially for Gen Z - however, the majority of Gen Z (68%) and Millennials (72%) are discovering online recipes through organic search, using search engines and keywords to find meal inspiration.
Millennial and Gen Z Recipe Inspiration Trends
Online recipes aren’t just inspiring meal ideas—they’re also shaping purchasing decisions. Our survey revealed that:
87.98% of Millennials and 78.72% of Gen Z said that they have tried cooking a dish they hadn’t made before, thanks to an online recipe.
74.47% of Gen Z and 81.73% of Millennials say online recipes have inspired them to purchase new ingredients or products they had never bought before.
63.83% of Gen Z and 70.19% of Millennials reported that online recipes have led them to purchase a new or different brand from what they usually buy.
These inspiration insights revolving both generations are critical for CPG brands, because they provide insight into the potential of online recipes as a contextually relevant space for advertising.
For example, because 81% of Millennial consumers have been inspired by a recipe to purchase a new ingredient or product, CPG brands and retailers can use online recipes as contextually relevant environments to advertise - pushing new products and items to the market to a high-intent audience.
Generational Mindset Matters
To further understand where online recipes play in the overall purchasing journey, we asked a few tactical questions in our survey. First, we asked respondents whether they have ever added grocery products to an online cart after seeing those products listed in an online recipe - 68.3% of Millennials and 53.2% of Gen Z claimed they have.
This is a critical point, and a signal that online recipe pages have a direct influence on what consumers are purchasing online. It also points to consumers being comfortable with shopping via off-site channels, especially when those channels are contextually relevant and catering to their purchasing needs.
Note that this is not limited to users who have directly purchased from a recipe page using an add-to-cart button. In fact, when asked whether they would make a grocery purchase directly from an online recipe if given the option to, 55.3% of Gen Z and 60.1% of Millennial respondents said they would likely or very likely do so.
Shopping with Recipes in Hand
One notable difference between Gen Z and Millennials is how they incorporate online recipes into their grocery shopping habits. 53% of Millennials report that they always or often use online recipes to prepare for grocery shopping, compared to 36% of Gen Z.
While both generations see value in using recipes as shopping guides, Millennials are more likely to plan their grocery lists around online recipes, reflecting a potentially more structured approach to meal planning.
This trend of recipe-driven shopping is particularly evident in how they use mobile devices in stores. A striking 84.13% of Millennials and 76.60% of Gen Z have looked up recipes on their mobile devices while in the grocery store.
This point is huge - it highlights the impact of online recipes in an in-store environment. Online recipes serve as a critical layer in the complex omnichannel path to purchase. Taking advantage of that digital environment can help CPG brands target consumers in real-time, when they’re looking to make a purchase decision in-store.
Conclusion: The Role of Contextual Commerce Media in Reaching Gen Z and Millennials
Ultimately, our data points to how Gen Z and Millennials are increasingly turning to online recipes for meal-planning and grocery shopping inspiration. Beyond that, though, it reveals the true potential behind online recipes as contextually relevant, brand-safe environments to reach consumers at the right moment.
At the crux of this insight lies our main recommendation: Contextual commerce media is the key strategy for CPG brands looking to strategically target consumers and drive incrementality.
Contextual commerce media platforms, like Chicory, eliminate wasted impressions, target audiences in brand-safe environments, and reach consumers in the right mindset with contextual ads.
Getting in front of inspired Gen Z and Millennial consumers puts your ad dollars to strategic use, increases media efficiency, and allows you to tap into both these generations of consumers in a purchase mindset.