While online shopping in general is growing, it isn’t the main shopping channel for the majority of food shopping occasions, according to the Food Shopping in America 2017 report produced by The Hartman Group, Bellevue, Wash. That’s because among the 71% of consumers who haven’t placed an order online for grocery items in the past three months, almost half (48%) said the main reason was that they enjoy shopping in person more,

Online shopping for foods and beverages has been steadily growing since 2012. According to the study, in 2017, 29% of shoppers ordered food online in the past three months compared to 23% in 2014 and 18% in 2012.

“As our Food Shopping in America 2017 report finds, providing food for the household is an expression of love, care and nurturance for self and others,” says Laurie Demeritt, chief executive officer. “It is because of this that for many consumers, shopping for groceries is something much more than a chore — it is an act of love.”

While today’s consumers are omnichannel shoppers, brick-and-mortar grocery remains the most used channel, with 86% having shopped it in the last 30 days. Grocery serves as a convenient generalist, but growing use of emerging channels threatens it on both convenience and selection.

The online grocery channel and its key shopper demographics — younger consumers and parents — make it poised for further growth, but the channel will have to overcome significant barriers like perceptions of poor selection and inconvenience to attract more online food shoppers.