Grocery delivery sales may have lost momentum in recent months following the COVID-19 pandemic-driven e-commerce boom, but that hasn’t stopped food retailers from pressing ahead with services and technology designed to help shoppers avoid making a trip to the store.
Over the past few weeks, a number of retailers, including Cub, Stater Bros. Market and The Fresh Market, have signed deals with DoorDash to provide delivery services to customers, while Hy-Vee and Uber announced their own grocery delivery partnership. DoorDash has placed a priority on helping grocers refine their in-store processes in an effort to help them grow their delivery business.
In August, Whole Foods Market made hundreds of products carrying its 365 private label available for nationwide delivery through Amazon. The following month, Albertsons rolled out a new e-commerce platform that offers 30-minute delivery of as many as 35 items from more than 2,000 stores, while Walmart expanded its delivery hours until later in the evening.
Retailers have been investing in technology to help them manage online orders more efficiently. Target is building a growing network of sortation centers, which receive and stage products for delivery to shoppers and have allowed the company to sharply boost its ability to fulfill orders the day after they are placed. Target is also using bigger trucks to help drivers handle more orders per route.
Hy-Vee also recently reached a deal with Takeoff Technologies under which the automation company will develop an unspecified number of micro-fulfillment centers for the Midwestern supermarket chain.
Here’s a roundup of recent announcements in the grocery delivery sector.