9 Best Sites for Online Grocery Shopping

Many people welcome a Walmart in their hometowns, but whether there's one down the street or not, you can schedule a time to pick up all your items when you order your groceries online.

Walmart offers online grocery ordering with free same-day pickup and delivery using the Walmart Grocery App or website. You can also schedule your delivery up to several days in advance by picking a time window for when you'll arrive to get the order.

Amazon is the largest online retailer, but they also have grocery offerings. Of the thousands of products available through AmazonFresh include beverages and meats to seasonal gifts and baskets.

You can search for groceries to buy online or browse the produce, perishables, grocery, beverages, household, or personal care/health/beauty categories.

The filtering options when ordering groceries online are extremely helpful. For example, if you're looking for meat, you can refine the results to find only organic and/or pasture-raised meats, low-fat meat, specific brands of meat, certain types like chicken or turkey, etc.

Amazon Prime customers enjoy free shipping on all qualifying grocery orders. If there's a subscribe option, you can get the item on a routine basis at a reduced cost.

Instacart connects you with shoppers in your area who are willing to shop for you and then deliver the groceries to your house. You can get groceries anywhere from an hour from your order to later in the week, from stores like Costco, CVS, ALDI, Sam's Club, Petco, and more.

The Instacart website and grocery delivery app are easy to use and let you schedule grocery deliveries as early as 9 AM and as late as midnight, depending on the store's hours.

Instacart Express is a feature you can subscribe to every month or year to get unlimited free deliveries on all orders over $35. It also comes with no busy pricing fees during peak hours and reduced service fees.

See if Instacart works in your area to get started. After finding your location, you can browse through the stores that are supported.

FreshDirect delivers fresh, organic, gourmet food to many different areas within the United States. Just enter your zip code to see if they deliver to your area.

Their online grocery items come directly from local farms and dairies, with specialization for people with kosher, gluten-free, or organic and natural food preferences. You can also order beer and wine from FreshDirect.

One thing to call out with this online grocery shopping site is the area of each product page that explains how long the food will remain fresh from the time it's delivered. This is a great way to prepare for meals later in the week while ordering food online.

Local Harvest aims to connect people in their local communities with fresh, organic, farm-to-table produce and goods.

You can find produce online both in your local area and in cities nationwide; not all of the farms represented in their directory offer delivery outside of local areas, but many do.

Shoppers can also take advantage of Community Supported Agriculture deliveries, subscribing to seasonal produce and visiting their selected farms once each season.

ShopFoodEx has over 15,000 grocery items. You can make lists, take advantage of seasonal specials, and shop a limited array of warehouse items.

Shipping rates can be rather high when you buy groceries from this site; up to $16 even for an item that runs just a few dollars. However, shipping rates are clearly stated before you order anything (they're different depending on where you live), and if you spend $100 or more, ShopFoodEx will automatically drop shipping charges by 33 percent.

This grocery shopping site lets you check out as a guest without making a user account, which is helpful if you're in a hurry. Deliveries to APO/FPO addresses is supported.

Stock organic and kosher foods with GoBio!. The site offers high-quality food delivered to the United States and Canada, with free shipping on orders over $85.

Some of the product categories you can look through include broth powder, candy, gelatin, bouillon cubes, dessert mixes, and gravy cubes.

Watch for E-Specials, which change frequently. You can sign up for their email newsletter to track the specials.

Safeway extends the convenience of online grocery shopping to quite a few areas in the U.S. Shipping fees are low, and there are lots of grocery items from which to choose.

Be sure to read through the Weekly Ad page for deals. You can even filter the page by category and search through the ad.

When you fill your online cart, use the notes section to issue directions for specific items (e.g., please provide firm tomatoes).