Download the full 2026 Grocery Trends Report here.

This free trends report outlines industry perspectives and expert advice from our team of retail industry consultants. You can view an excerpt of the report below, and if you’d like to discuss any of the trends or other challenges in the grocery space, connect with our team today.

Key Grocery Trends

These grocery trends point to a common theme: maturity. Across AI, ecommerce, retail media, and enterprise technology, success is no longer driven by experimentation alone but by disciplined execution and integration. In 2026, winning grocery retailers will be those that simplify their strategies, invest in strong foundations, and align innovation with real customer and business needs.

Clarkston’s grocery industry consultants have highlighted the top grocery trends that businesses should consider and keep top-of-mind throughout the year:

1. From Experimentation to Embedded: How AI Will Reshape Grocery Retail in 2026 … AI is becoming embedded in everyday operations, requiring strong data foundations, governance, and clear prioritization of use cases.
2. Online Grocery Scales as Competition and Execution Intensify …  eCommerce continues to scale, and retailers are refining fulfillment models and partnerships to balance growth with profitability.
3. Retail Media Networks: The New Growth Engines  … Retail Media Networks are emerging as meaningful revenue contributors, yet demand operational rigor, consistent measurement, and trust with both shoppers and brands.
4. Improving Technology Across the Organization in 2026 … At the enterprise level, technology investments are increasingly evaluated based on how well they connect across the organization. Siloed tools and fragmented systems will limit impact in an environment where speed, efficiency, and insight are critical. 
5. Macro Forces and Consumer Preferences … Underlying all of this is a consumer who remains value-driven, health-conscious, digitally influenced, and selective.

Trend 1:

From Experimentation to Embedded: How AI Will Reshape Grocery Retail in 2026

In 2025, AI adoption expanded rapidly, accompanied by growing realism about what it takes to move from pilots to consistent, scalable business impact. While confidence in AI’s long-term importance remained high, many organizations struggled to translate pilots into consistent business impact. Executives agree generative AI will eventually transform their businesses but are reconsidering the pace of adoption. This sentiment was echoed at Groceryshop 2025, where industry leaders acknowledged the need to shift from experimentation toward building the foundational systems, processes, and operating models required to unlock value at scale. 

For grocery retailers, this disconnect was clear. Many pursued AI experiments across forecasting, pricing, personalization, and labor planning, while simultaneously highlighting gaps in organizational readiness and deployment maturity. Companies across industries struggled to move AI beyond pilots due to integration complexity, inconsistent data readiness, governance gaps, and talent shortages. The key challenge is bridging experimentation with operational value: retailers are increasingly asking not whether to use AI, but how to prioritize use cases and close systemic gaps to improve business outcomes. 

By late 2025, AI adoption in grocery retail was increasingly moving beyond isolated experiments toward deeper integration within core business processes – AI transitioned from a promising tool to embedded infrastructure in how businesses operate. Innovations like Instacart’s instant checkout powered by ChatGPT demonstrate how AI is becoming embedded in both customer-facing experiences and operational workflows, signaling a shift to practical applications at scale.  

AI is also enhancing end-to-end supply chain unification at retailers through more accurate forecasting, greater visibility into in-store inventory, increased productivity in the warehouse, and informed optimization of logistics management. This transition is supported by technical progress. Advances in reasoning, benchmarking, and multi-step decision support make AI more suitable for complex decision-making, not just automation. Looking ahead to 2026, industry outlooks underscore a pragmatic approach, prioritizing which processes generate measurable ROI from AI and what levels of human oversight are appropriate for each use case.  

Ultimately, competitive advantage will come from execution maturity, not experimentation volume. While 2025 was defined by AI optimism, 2026 will favor leaders who start with strong infrastructure foundations and embed intelligence into core workflows, supported by strong data foundations, change management, and clear governance. 

Trend 2:

Online Grocery Scales as Competition and Execution Intensify 

Grocery eCommerce and omnichannel strategies are entering a more competitive and consequential phase heading into 2026. Online grocery continues to be a primary growth engine for the retail sector, with delivery and pickup gaining share globally as consumers prioritize convenience and speed. In the U.S., online grocery sales reached recurring monthly highs throughout 2025 attributed by increased penetration and higher order frequency. Looking ahead, online grocery is expected to represent a 20% share of total U.S. ecommerce, driven by improved technology integration and evolving consumer expectations. 

Platform strategies are also reshaping the competitive landscape. DoorDash has significantly expanded its grocery footprint by adding national, regional, and local grocers, while deepening partnerships that extend full grocery assortments to millions of households nationwide. The launch of a grocery shopping experience within ChatGPT highlights the next frontier of eCommerce ordering, reshaping how shoppers discover and purchase groceries. At the same time, Amazon’s continued push into same-day grocery delivery is raising service expectations and intensifying competitive pressure across the sector. 

Retailers are also reassessing fulfillment strategies in pursuit of profitability. Kroger’s decision to close certain automated fulfillment centers while reinforcing partnerships with third-party delivery providers reflects a broader industry reset toward capital efficiency and margin improvement. Similarly, Ahold Delhaize has reported progress toward eCommerce profitability, demonstrating that disciplined omnichannel execution can balance growth with financial performance. 

Despite continued growth, retailers enter 2026 facing ongoing pressure to drive eCommerce profitability. Emerging technologies, including conversational commerce, voice ordering, and personalization, present opportunities to improve conversion and engagement, but long-term success will depend on how effectively retailers prioritize implementation aligned with business size, budget, and customer needs. 

Continue reading by downloading the full report below.

Download the Full 2026 Grocery Trends Report Here

Read last year’s Grocery Trends Report here.