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HelloFresh Signups Increased 312% Compared to Last Year

This was the highest year-over-year increase of any meal kit service studied.

Key Takeaways

• New signups for HelloFresh and Green Chef peaked in January.

• All meal kit services studied saw a drop in meal kit signups from March to April 2020 (following the COVID-19 pandemic being declared a national emergency in the USA).

Our recent research on the impact of COVID-19 on various e-commerce industries showed that online grocery and food delivery sales have skyrocketed this year. Alongside them, online spending on cannabis and wine subscriptions has also increased significantly. With restaurants nationwide still differing in in-house dining rules and grocery stores still having long socially-distanced lines, meal kit services have, in turn, been impacted by the changes COVID-19 has brought -- in one example, March saw Blue Apron’s stock jumping 1,100% in one week. Edison Trends took a deep dive into over 237,000 transactions in the U.S. from HelloFresh, Blue Apron, Home Chef and Green Chef to see how meal kit industry sales are faring five months into the pandemic.

How have meal kit signups changed in the last year, and following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Figure 1a: Chart shows estimated meal kit signups by month for HelloFresh, Home Chef, Blue Apron, and Green Chef, from June 1, 2020 - June 30, 2020, according to Edison Trends. Note: The highest spend per month/vendor was set to 100, and all other values were scaled accordingly. This analysis was performed on over 9,000 transactions.

For HelloFresh and Green Chef, new signups peaked in January of this year, likely related in part to the New Year holiday and its annual resolution-driven sales. All four of the merchants we analyzed declined from March into April (during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic across the USA), with HelloFresh making the steepest drop at 82%, though a partial rebound occurred in May. Three of these merchants saw growth in June, with Home Chef signups rebounding 83% over May's numbers; Green Chef saw their signups grow 27% over May, and HelloFresh 18%.

Figure 1b: Chart shows year-over-year change in meal kit service signups for HelloFresh, Green Chef, Home Chef, and Blue Apron, comparing June 2019 to June 2020, according to Edison Trends. Note: The highest spend per month/vendor was set to 100, and all other values were scaled accordingly. This analysis was performed on over 7,500 transactions.

Comparing this June to last, HelloFresh has seen the greatest growth in new users, having increased their number of signups a remarkable 312%. Green Chef is next with a 71% increase, then Home Chef at 40% and Blue Apron at 10%.

To access the full version of this report that includes online grocery spend compared across leading merchants, new user acquisition trends, and delivery vs. pickup trends, please contact us at bizdev@edison.tech.

As the market evolves, we will continue to stay on top of the latest trends. To learn more about how Edison Trends can help your business, contact us at bizdev@edison.tech. For more up-to-date insights in the e-commerce space, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter, and follow us on Twitter at @EdisonTrends.

*The data shown is based on a sample of anonymized and aggregated e-receipts from millions of consumers in the United States.

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