Global Shopping Insights Report: USA 🇺🇸

Battle of the drinks: juice or water?

In the USA, water is chosen more often than juice, with 22% more additions to shopping lists for water compared to juice.

Similarly, water is more frequently planned for purchase by Italians, Brazilians, and Germans, while juice is preferred by the French, Canadians, and Norwegians.

Which country likes Nutella the most?

The United Statesranked tenth out of 12 countries in the share of Nutella in the sweet and savory snacks category. The highest results were recorded in France and Germany, while the lowest were in Canada, the USA, and Norway.

"Shopping" or Walmart? Most common shopping list names

Among the analyzed phrases, "new list" appeared most frequently in shopping list titles in the United States, accounting for 8.38% of all lists. Interestingly, the second most common phrase was not "shopping", as in many other countries, but the retailer "Walmart". Only in Spain did a retailer achieve a higher share (7.92% for Mercadona). In Canada, Walmart was also the most popular retailer, but its share in list titles was lower at 2.23%, with Costco achieving a higher share (4.61%).

In total, U.S. retailers appeared in nearly 10% of shopping list titles, the third-highest result among the analyzed countries. German and Spanish retailers performed slightly better, with 9.94% and 15.38% shares, respectively.

Who’s behind the shopping list?

In the USA, 9.46% of active shopping lists from June 1, 2023, to May 31, 2024, were shared with at least one person.This result is not only below the global average but also the lowest among all analyzed countries. Danes and Poles were the most frequent users of the list-sharing feature.

The list-sharing rate may reflect how citizens of a given country share the responsibility of household shopping.

Hot categories

The most popular product category on shopping lists across all analyzed countries is fruits and vegetables. In the USA, this category accounts for 16.61%, which is 2.26 percentage points lower than the global average and one of the lowest among the analyzed countries.

However, the United States leads in the sweet and savory snacks category, as well as pet products.These categories account for 5.15% and 1.33%, respectively, which is 1.63 and 0.62 percentage points higher than the global average.

Shopper favorites

Milk, eggs, and bread are the most frequently added products to shopping lists in the United States, standing out in terms of the number of additions compared to other products. In fourth place, similar to Canada, are bananas, which are the most popular fruit in all analyzed countries. In no other country were bananas ranked as high on shopping lists as in the USA and Canada.

Who shops like a pro?

In the USA, 47.3% of items on shopping listswere marked as purchased after being added, which is lower than the global average and the lowest among all analyzed countries.

****Factors such as store availability and product offerings may influence the rate of items being marked as purchased.

Sweet tooth or snack attack?

Americans choose chips significantly more often than chocolate, with a 55% preference for chips.

Similarly, chips are more popular in Sweden, Denmark, and Canada. In contrast, chocolate is more frequently added to shopping lists in France, Poland, and Spain.

The month that stood out

In December 2023, 3,062,937 productswere added to shopping lists in the United States, representing a 7.97% increase compared to November 2023, which had the second-highest number of products added.

During the analyzed period, the fewest products were added in June 2023, with 2,460,084 products, which is 24.51% fewer than in December 2023.

English, please!

Although American Community Survey (ACS) data from 2018-2022 shows that about 78.3% of U.S. residents (aged 5 and older) speak only English at home, only 46.74% of shopping lists in the Listonic app were created in English. This is the lowest percentage among all the analyzed countries.

Poland had the highest share (96.09%), followed by Norway (89.24%).

Shopping speed champions

Americans rank 10th(tied with Italians) in the list of nations that most quickly move from adding a product to their shopping list to marking it as purchased. In the United States, the average time for this process is 136 hours (just over 5.5 days).

Danes complete their shopping lists the fastest (58 hours), while Brazilians take the longest (172 hours).

Various factors, such as shopping frequency and product availability, may influence these results.

The country of ultimate organizers

Americans used the Listonic app an average of 4.06 times per week, placing them in the middle of the rankings among the analyzed countries. The French used the app the most frequently (4.6 times/week), while Brazilians    used it the least (2.67 times/week). The global average is 3.93 visits per week.

Most U.S. users (36.30%) used the app once a week, while the second-largest group (24.39%) planned their shopping in the app 4 to 10 times per week.