Ace Hardware Announces Launch To Test Same-Day Delivery

Many retailers are going same-day delivery, and even now you can get your tools fast. Ace Hardware has decided to branch off from just being a brick-and-mortar tool store and test some last-mile deliveries of its' own.

Ace announced that it will be testing same-day delivery in 33 of its' 4,400 stores in select cities in the US, including Arizona, Illinois, Colorado, Maryland, Texas and Florida. Express delivery service will be available for customers to customers within 5 miles of a participating store and place their online order by 1pm. For an additional $5 fee, an Ace store associate will fulfill the online order and deliver it. The new program, which began January 26th, is an extension of Ace's online order and pick up in store service, which is currently available at 1,600 Ace stores. Retailers are being more innovative to get their products to the customer, since maybe there is a probability shoppers will spend more if they can get their products to their front door instead.

Per the Chicago Tribune, the hardware store does have one pilot store in Chicago for same-day delivery. This is one of the popular cities known for the demographics necessary to implement the high demand service. Malls such as Woodfield Mall and Water Tower Place were mentioned in the article as providing an on-demand car service for shoppers last year. Customers can make their purchases at the store, and instead of dropping them of to their cars, they can have them delivered to their homes, as they continue to shop.

A wide range of well-known companies have launched same-day delivery. To position itself for last year's holiday season, Macy's launched the service in 8 major US cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, Houston, Chicago, Washington DC, and New Jersey. Sister company Bloomingdale's followed suit in some of those cities as well. Macy's same-day delivery fees are comparable with other big name retailers. It's service is priced at a flat fee of $5 for orders over $99. Shoppers with smaller orders pay standard shipping rates, plus the flat rate.

Unexpected Petco launched a few same-day delivery pilot programs for pet food items last month, one in San Francisco and another in Boston. Petco has teamed up with food delivery company Instacart, as other retailers partner with a same-day courier like A-1 Express to perform the actual deliveries. Instacart will pick up and deliver items for Petco, such as dog food, birdhouses, kitty litter and more. Petco's service will deliver to their customer's front door as fast as an hour for fees between $3.99 and $5.99.

Wal-Mart is another retail leader that offers same-day delivery in multiple US cities and also in Canada. In some areas in Canada, Wal-Mart's service is free, as it competes heavily with Amazon. Wal-Green's, Toys-R-Us, American Eagle, Banana Republic, and more have all decided to deliver their products to their online shoppers. This allows product to move, even while the consumer doesn't. Online retail is expected to increase to $500 billion by 2018, which many . A-1 Express is assured to be a Dallas courier retailers can partner with now in the beginning stages of this same-day service growth.

Reference: 2.17.15, Chicago Tribune, Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz, Ace Hardware tests same-day delivery near some stores