Dive Brief:

• Grocers will soon be able to use Shipt's workforce for delivery in as little as an hour for orders placed through their online storefronts on Wynshop’s platform, Wynshop announced Thursday.
• Wynshop, formerly known as ThryveAI, will begin adding access to Shipt's same-day delivery capabilities in early 2022 to online platforms it provides to clients including United Supermarkets and Wakefern.
• The arrangement addresses the interest by grocers in controlling relationships with e-commerce customers even as they look to third-party logistics providers to help manage their online capabilities.

Dive Insight:

Wynshop's partnership with Shipt reflects one of the most delicate aspects of the online grocery business: Grocers often want access to the large numbers of delivery workers third-party e-commerce providers maintain, but to do so, they frequently have to give up oversight of the ties with shoppers that serve at the foundation of their businesses.

Retailers that use Wynshop's platform can elect to work with a range of delivery services, allowing them to select the provider to use for a given order based on factors like basket size and distance to the customer, said Barry Clogan, the company's chief product officer.

"Whether it's Instacart, whether it's Shipt, whether it's Skipcart, we're continually evolving our … integration with last mile partners," Clogan said in an interview. "The goal [is] that the retailer has got the ecosystem that they can access and the options to make the choices that are best for their business."

Beyond helping retailers build online storefronts, Wynshop has enabled retailers it works with to attract larger orders from customers, on average, than they typically get through third-party grocery marketplaces like Instacart, Clogan said. With Wynshop's platform, retailers can access content management capabilities to curate products, recommendations, promotions and search results, giving them control over the stories they are trying to tell with products and leading to "very healthy" baskets, Clogan said. 

Shipt recognizes the interest among its grocery clients to maintain control of their e-commerce platforms, Rina Hurst, Shipt's chief business officer, said in the press release. The partnership with Wynshop allows the Target-owned company to expand customers' relationships with Shipt Shoppers, leveraging its focus on building connections between customers and the workers who pick and deliver their items. 

"Between offering Shipt’s marketplace for incremental sales and supporting the growing desire for a grocer to also have their own e-commerce website, we’re focused on meeting and supporting grocers where they are in their delivery journey," Hurst said.