More Same-Day Grocery Delivery for Whole Foods

Grocery delivery services are growing day by day, as customers begin to become more comfortable with having their food products delivered. What adds to the value of grocery delivery is that is provides a high level of convenience. It saves customers time spending at the store, and the gas money it takes to driver there. Whole Foods is a supermarket chain that joined with Instacart in 2014 and found a successful niche in same-day grocery delivery, coupled with its already strong loyal customer base. It made sense to do it then, and it makes sense to expand now.

Whole Foods has announced it will be expanding its same-day grocery services via the mobile grocery shopping app Instacart. Internet Retailer reported that Whole Foods will be adding an unspecified number of markets in which it will offer same-day grocery delivery, in addition to its current 17 metro areas where the Instacart delivery option is being offered. The grocery retailer appears to be seeking to gain more of the online grocery market share, especially with e-retail based Amazon and Google positioning themselves to turn more fast grocery shoppers their way from physical supermarkets directly.

AmazonFresh has been at it for a while, especially mid-last year teaming up with the US Postal Service to deliver groceries in San Francisco, as well as 38 various zip codes in the area. It is also available in the companies hometown Seattle, Los Angeles and more. Google Express officially launched Same-Day Delivery of groceries last month, delivering produce, meat, eggs and other perishable goods in parts of San Francisco and Los Angeles also.

The article also discussed what Whole Foods' pricing is for same-day grocery services. Its' hour-window service cost a $5.99 fee, while its two-hour window service is $3.99. Short window times with the service tend to be fixed, being they're food and perishables, yet, the accuracy of delivery is more critical because it is food. Several supermarket chains that offer the service partner with an expert Same-Day Courier like A-1 Express to perform the actual deliveries. The New York Courier functions at a fast pace and has a national footprint to meet client expansion demand quickly.

Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta commented on the successful strides that Whole Foods is making partnering with them. He stated, “Instacart and Whole Foods Market share a mutual commitment to providing our customers with the easiest and most seamless grocery shopping experience possible. We look forward to continuing to innovate with Whole Foods Market in the services that we can bring to users.” This shows that Whole Foods is able to create the ominchannels it wants that is results in store food sales.

With the Instacart mobile app or website, Whole Foods is in big US markets such as Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C. and more. At the time of the announcement, the new expansion markets include Orange County, California, and Baltimore. Whole Foods has also been reaching out to more customers that are on the go via coupons. Just last month, Whole Foods launched online coupons through Instacart's mobile app as well.

Reference: 3.10.16, www.internetretailer.com, Matt Linder, Whole Foods expands delivery services with Instacart