Today, Walmart announced a new partnership with DoorDash, a restaurant-delivery service platform, to expand its grocery delivery efforts. This is a direct counter to Instacart and Amazon’s expanding footprint in the grocery delivery industry. Presently, the pilot is being conducted exclusively in the Atlanta, Georgia region although the company expects to expand the service to almost half of all US households by year’s end, according to USA Today. The Walmart online grocery shopper will have the option of home delivery via DoorDash or by its Online Grocery Pickup service.
To understand the ever-growing online grocery scene, a recent Coresight Research survey discovered that 26% of US Walmart shoppers have bought groceries online in the past 12 months. And since most of Walmart’s digital unique visitors arrive via a mobile device (comScore), incorporating a speedy delivery service via the DoorDash mobile app may offer a cogent argument to the millennial consumer. According to Coresight Research, US adults ages 30-44 own a 28% share among online grocery shoppers, leading all age groups.
The area of concern for the grocery delivery service may be in DoorDash’s $9.95 delivery fee. According to the April survey, 42% of US consumers stated the reason why they wouldn’t purchase online groceries in the next 12 months was due to fees.
But in the end, Walmart is just playing catch-up. In February, Amazon began offering a free 2-hour grocery delivery service ($7.99 within 1 hour) under its Prime Now program across select US cities, with the goal of expanding the service to all US cities by end of 2018.
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