Retailers are adding new brands, advanced technology, more logistics and warehouse space to keep customers hooked to online shopping.
The retail industry has been consumed by the idea of ordering a product in the morning and getting it at work or home in the afternoon because that could destroy one of the last advantages of the local mom and pop stores– urgency.
Retail giant Amazon (AMZN) – Get Amazon.com, Inc. Report has got us hooked to high-speed deliveries, a format that emerged nearly a decade ago as a new part of the e-commerce era. And, that’s a bar that Amazon keeps pushing.
Remember when guaranteed two-delivery seemed quick? Now, one day can seem slow when same-day options abound.
E-commerce sales climbed during the pandemic as some people ditched shopping in physical stores and turned to online delivery for everyday toilet paper and home goods as part of a great shopping reset.
Minneapolis retail giant Target (TGT) – Get Target Corporation Report is beefing up its efforts in this segment with its two latest retail partnerships with convenience store chain 7-Eleven and drugstore chain Walgreens (WBA) – Get Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc Report.
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Target Amps Up the Same-Day Delivery Wars
Target, which acquired grocery delivery startup Shipt, four years ago to turbocharge its delivery services, is taking center stage to outrun the competition in an area where rivals have been aggressively doubling down.
“Located on corners of nearly every major market in America, these two powerhouse brands are incredible complements to our marketplace, bringing customers even more variety and product categories while driving added convenience for each brands’ shoppers,” said Shipt’s Chief Business Officer Shipt’s Rina Hurst in a statement.
The deal will allow shoppers access to more than 3,000 7-Eleven products and 25,000 Walgreens items, including groceries, over-the-counter medicines, household goods, and a range of food and beverage options, in as soon as an hour.
“Shipt brings to each of these relationships our personal approach to service and a differentiation of the high-quality experience our shoppers deliver to each and every customer,” Hurst added.
Shipt is working with both Walgreens and 7-Eleven on unique customer promotions, the company said.
Walmart Steps Up Its Efforts
Retail giant Walmart (WMT) – Get Walmart Inc. Report is also reportedly working on new advanced and efficient ways to make home delivery a habit for consumers even as a return to normal kicks in.
“Walmart is building more automated fulfillment centers attached to existing stores, experimenting with autonomous trucks, using its own workers to make deliveries and expand a service where staffers leave packages inside homes,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said it is adding more capacity for pickup and delivery during its fourth-quarter earnings call.
“We increased capacity by nearly 20% last year, and we expect to increase capacity by another 35% this year,” he said.
Meanwhile, Amazon has added more than 450 new facilities to store, sort, and ship items, in a bid to deliver goods in one day or less, and increasingly to do so without the help of third-party shippers.
All three of these players have been spending hundreds of millions — billions in the case of Amazon and Walmart — to deliver more items more quickly. Target, by using Shipt, has found a way to leverage its stores and its relationships to compete with its better-funded competitors.
