Whether you’re too busy to shop, want to save valuable time, or simply don’t feel like spending hours in a store, online grocery shopping is incredibly convenient. But with all of the different online grocery services out there, choosing the best one for you could take longer than a trip to the actual store.
In our guide to the best online grocery shopping sites, we break down all the costs, how the various services work, their pros and cons, and more, to make your online grocery shopping experience a breeze.
Instacart -Shop 500 million+ products and get same-day delivery on go-to items Read Review
Public Goods -Healthy and sustainable essential household goods and groceries Read Review
Fulton Fish Market -A variety of fresh, high-quality seafood for shippin Read Review
Kroger -All the items from your neighborhood grocer brought right to your home Read Review
Vital Choice -Fresh, organic fish delivery service
Read Review
Rastelli’s -Get the butcher’s best cuts of meat, poultry and, seafood to your door Read Review
Shipt -Lightning-fast same-day deliveries from local shops and national chains Read Review
HelloFresh is ideal for people who don’t want to waste time creating menus and shopping for ingredients because they do all the legwork for you. HelloFresh sends you a neatly packaged box of seasonal, varied ingredients and recipe cards for meals that take less than 30 minutes and just 6 steps to prepare. Many of the meal components come already prepped, chopped, or combined, saving you time. Meal options can be customized to your dietary needs. HelloFresh can save you money on your food bills, since you’ll get exactly what you need to cook specific dishes. Their food appeals to a range of palates and is suitable for every member of your family.
HelloFresh is known for its top-notch customer service. You can manage your subscription preferences on their user-friendly website or pause delivery for the week if you need to. Any issues or questions are easily addressed using the site’s live chat feature or by calling a customer representative by phone. HelloFresh delivers on a set day of the week anytime between 8 am to 8 pm, which means your package may arrive while you’re out at work or arrive after dinner time, so plan accordingly. HelloFresh can be a great choice for people stuck in a cooking rut or who are looking for a way to stop ordering frequent takeout.
Home Chef is great for people who want to get a home-cooked dinner on the table fast without relying on takeout (again!). Home Chef’s pre-portioned meal prep kits are quick to prepare, with many coming together in under half an hour. Meals are classified according to difficulty level and cuisine type. It’s easy to select food according to your preferences and order add-ons like extra proteins. For those who want a home-cooked meal in a hurry, Home Chef has food that’s oven, grill, or microwave ready.
Home Chef lets you create a taste profile so that future suggestions reflect your preferences. You can choose your meals up to 5 weeks in advance so you order once and you’re all set for a while. You can skip delivery for a particular week or cancel your plan at any time. Home Chef recipes are clearly explained, making it simple to prepare the dishes and get dinner on the table with minimal effort. Home Chef lets you swap or double your protein on some meals, and you can even upgrade to a premium cut for an occasional splurge. If you’re ordering just for yourself, be aware that the minimum order amount is 2 servings, so choose a dish you’ll want to repeat for another meal. Home Chef meals can be ordered online or purchased at several grocery chains across the country.
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Factor features over 20 healthy meals each week that are designed by dietitians, made from fresh ingredients, and cooked by the company’s chefs. Meals are high-quality and free of antibiotics, hormones, GMOs, and refined sugars. Filter Factor’s weekly menu by your dietary needs such as paleo, low calorie, low carb, keto, or vegetarian.
Meals stay fresh for up to 10 days and can be frozen to eat later. Factor also offers nutritional consultations and coaching to help you eat clean. If you’re looking for a simple way to live a healthier lifestyle, Factor could be the meal delivery service for you.
Instacart is a great online grocery delivery service that is offered throughout most cities across the US and Canada. It works with local stores to offer you the best service available. It is worth the extra cost in order to save you time and money on driving to and from the store and avoid impulse buys. That’s what makes this service invaluable to so many of its customers.
When you shop with Instacart, you can make sure that you never run out of anything as deliveries are available on the same day. There’s excellent customer service, and if they do make a mistake with your delivery and something wasn’t delivered, they will either get it out to you as soon as possible or refund you instantly.
If seafood is your thing, then you’re going to love Fulton Fish Market. It’s one of the biggest fish markets in the country and possibly has the widest variety of seafood varieties out there. You can choose from premium quality regulars like grouper, hake, perch, salmon, tilapia, and trout. Or try something new and discover a new favorite like sea urchin, eel, or sashimi.
Fulton Fish Market delivers fresh, frozen, smoked, and salted varieties of every seafood you could wish for. And best of all, delivery is free. Create your own box or let Fulton Fish Market select the catch of the day, the best cuts available at the time, for a more eclectic menu. You can even order pantry extras to bolster your fish-based meals like spices and rice.
Kroger is a popular supermarket chain that offers online grocery deliveries as well. You can choose from same or next-day delivery, and Kroger even offers to get your groceries to you in two hours or less. There are also plenty of time slots, so you don’t have to worry about missing an entire day because the delivery service ran out of openings.
Kroger has a loyalty program for members. You can earn points for shopping and then use your points to pay for more shopping or just enjoy the cashback by transferring it into your PayPal account. Kroger has a great platform with useful features like shopping lists for easy reordering.
Vital Choice is all about premium food quality. The online grocery service with a difference offers ethically sourced, sustainable practices, and organic products to consumers looking to make a difference to the world inside and out. Vital Choice hand-picks suppliers, checking for humane practices and top-quality proteins. Choose from a selection of wild-caught seafood and pasture-raised beef.
Vital Choice also has tons of useful tools and tips on the website. You can get an environmental education reading up on its core values, check out the professional cooking videos created by chefs, or browse the handy how-to section to learn about grilling, descaling, and other cooking methods.
To rate these best online grocery delivery services, we dug in deep to find out exactly how they all work, what they offer and what the pros and cons are. We did extensive research to assess how delivery grocery shopping websites can:
Save you time
Save you money
Help you with your diet
Make you more efficient
With coronavirus as THE buzz word on everybody’s lips these days, online grocery services are certainly booming. But such services were gaining popularity even before this calamity hit. If you like the idea of convenient, fast, easy, and time-saving grocery shopping, then it’s time for you to enter the 21st century with the latest in online shopping. Read on to learn what all the hype is about.
Online grocery services are truly providing a benefit to consumers across the spectrum. From busy moms who don’t have time for…well, anything (and yet manage to get it all done anyway!) to ambitious worker bees eager to climb the ranks in their respective fields, online grocery services provide the convenience, ease, and efficiency the average consumer is looking for in everything these days. Here are a few benefits that this handy service can contribute to your busy life:
Nobody has time to waste these days. From students to parents, businessmen, and everyone in between, the one thing we all have in common is a serious lack of time to waste. Any service that provides a way to free up some of our precious time is worth looking into. Without a doubt, online grocery services are a real time-saver. Even if you’re fortunate enough to bypass the traffic getting to the store, there’s the time it takes to find parking, load up your cart, and make all-important price comparisons over those $5.99 bulk packs of cookies. And that’s to say nothing of waiting in line for the cashier.
It all adds up to valuable hours you could be using on more important and certainly more enjoyable activities. The beauty of choosing to order groceries online is that it gifts you all the time back into your busy schedule, allowing you to get more of the things you want done instead. When buying groceries online, you cut out the commute, the parking, the sifting through aisles, and, most importantly, the waiting in line. So, you get your food and toiletries without all that time wasted.
Beyond time-savings, online grocery services deliver convenience. For one thing, you can’t compare clicking on a product online to having to fight off the sensory explosion of a standard supermarket aisle. Alternatively, online grocery services are neatly organized into products and categories that you can browse or simply search for individual items you want directly. Either way, you cut out all the added stress that usually defines a typical supermarket run.
And, of course, having your groceries delivered straight to your door is the most convenient of all. Who likes hauling grocery bags to and from the store anyway?
Online food stores charge a small fee for delivering your groceries to you. But if you use the right services, you’ll end up saving more than you spend on that small service fee. The best online grocery services have online coupons, easy price comparison tools, and many even include loyalty programs that earn rewards points when you shop groceries online. So, you get the convenience and time-savings benefits along with savings on your weekly grocery shopping.
When you use online grocery services, you buy what you need, what’s on your list, and nothing more. So, you end up saving a lot on all those little items you never needed or wanted anyway.
On that same principle, online supermarkets will actually help you save calories, as well. It’s been proven through research that when you get just the items on your list and aren’t persuaded by sales and attractive packaging, you end up eating healthier. There’s not that much to be coerced by when looking at a picture of a bag of Lay’s online after all.
What’s more, online grocery services offer healthy meal kits that will help you stay healthy and save time cooking. These meal kits provide you with all of the ingredients you need to make scrumptious and nutritious meals for you and your family. Choose from homestyle classics to exotic flavors and more, and get all the ingredients ready-prepared for cooking, easy instructions to follow, and serving suggestions to boot. Meal kits that you order from most online grocery delivery will also have the nutrition already balanced for you. So, there’s no calorie counting, and you know you’re getting all your essential nutrients packed into a single plate.
The biggest factor when choosing the best online grocery service for you will be delivery parameters. After all, if an online store has all the tasty foods you want but doesn’t deliver to your neighborhood, well, that’s just a tease! So, make sure to start your search by clarifying this important detail first. Some online grocery services offer in-store pick up. This is another convenient service that saves you oodles of time by doing the actual shopping for you, so you can swing by the store after work, pick up your shopping, and have all the groceries you need stocked and ready for use without the hassle or time crunch of shopping.
Once you know that you can get the goods delivered, check out the selection, coupon availability, and any savings programs (like loyalty or other rewards points programs) that can help you get the best deals. If there are specialty items you require, such as gluten-free or diabetic-friendly foods, be sure the online grocery stores of your choice carry those items regularly.