Dive Brief:

• BJ's Wholesale Club has launched a partnership with DoorDash to provide on-demand grocery delivery service, the companies announced Monday in a joint press release.
• The service, available to shoppers at all 226 BJ's locations in 17 Eastern states, is not limited to BJ's members. Customers who have a BJ's membership are eligible for lower prices, however.
• DoorDash has been aggressively building its presence in the competitive grocery delivery space, raising pressure on rival company Instacart.

Dive Insight:

The arrangement between DoorDash and BJ's gives both companies an opportunity to step up their presence in grocery e-commerce at a time when many shoppers are placing a premium on convenience when purchasing food and other essential goods.

BJ's is the first club retailer to join DoorDash's online marketplace and is offering foods including produce, deli meat and dairy products on demand through the platform. Shoppers can place on-demand orders for "thousands" of items sold by BJ's using the DoorDash app, according to the announcement.

"We see the trend towards convenience only going in one direction, with grocery delivery being no exception," Shanna Prevé, vice president of business development for DoorDash, said in a statement.

DoorDash customers who belong to the e-commerce provider's DashPass program will not be charged a delivery fee on orders of at least $25. In addition, DoorDash is providing a 30% discount on orders of $100 or more, capped at $40, through April 12.

DoorDash will also provide same-day delivery of products sold on BJ's website through the delivery provider's DoorDash Drive white-label e-commerce platform, the press release notes.

The partnership with BJ's follows DoorDash's announcement last month that it had started an "express" grocery service that allows grocers to get orders to customers in less than 30 minutes. DoorDash said Albertsons would be the first supermarket company to take advantage of the rapid delivery service, which goes up against a similar service Instacart unveiled last June. Instacart currently provides 30-minute delivery service for grocers including Kroger and The Giant Company.

BJ's has seen robust growth in its grocery business in recent months even as its earnings for the fourth quarter missed Wall Street's expectations. In February, the company said it had agreed to buy four refrigerated distribution centers to allow it to manage its perishable supply chain on its own.