CHICAGO, IL - After a nationwide study examining the $1 trillion United States grocery market, dunnhumby has announced H-E-B as the top U.S. Grocery Retailer in the seventh annual Retailer Preference Index (RPI). The chain is the first to be recognized as No. 1 in the RPI ranking. H-E-B is followed by Amazon in second place and Costco in third, making them the top three grocers for a second year in a row.

“Knowing your customer and your competitive positioning regarding customer needs will be critical for retailers to scratch out any organic growth in 2024. Customers are re-evaluating their opinions of retailers more than ever and that will only intensify in the coming months due to the economic headwinds facing consumers,” said Matt O’Grady, dunnhumby's President of the Americas. "In this year’s RPI, we illuminate how the consumer views the grocery market and how different retailers are meeting the general population’s needs as well as the needs of different consumer segments.”

The seven other retailers in the top 10 are 4) Market Basket, 5) Sam’s Club, 6) Wegmans, 7) Aldi, 8) ShopRite, 9) Walmart Neighborhood Market, and 10) Walmart, according to a release. The dunhumby RPI is one of the only approaches to ranking grocers that combines financial results with customer perception. It includes the largest 65 retailers in the industry that sell everyday food and non-food household items.

Financial data used in the dunnhumby model comes from Edge Ascential, and the customer perception data is sourced from dunnhumby’s annual survey of more than 10,000 American grocery shoppers. The five drivers of the customer value proposition are price, promotions and rewards, quality, digital, operations, and speed and convenience.

Key findings from the study include:

• dunnhumby forecasts the U.S. grocery market sales growth will be 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent in 2024
• Competitive intensity is at an all-time high in this fourth year of economic uncertainty
• Savings through low base prices and highly personalized promotions and rewards remain the strongest driver of better long-term retailer performance, followed by maintaining a high-quality assortment
• H-E-B topped the RPI ranking because they have the strongest customer value proposition for the long-term
• Amazon has been in the top three every year of the RPI and has ranked first twice
• Two Kroger banners (Kroger and Fry’s) made it to the top quartile for the first time in the history of the RPI

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