End of Week Update 11/13
TechCrunch - DoorDash files to go public
After a huge $400 million capital raise in June valuing the company at over $16 billion dollars, DoorDash has filed it’s S-1 to venture into the public markets. Posting astounding growth through the first 9 months of 2020 compared to 2019 ($587 mil vs. $1.92 bil) DoorDash has certainly been able to capitalize on the delivery markets during the COVID pandemic. One thing to look out for - DoorDash announced this summer that they are creating their own grocery delivery network - holding inventory at small warehouses to be distributed directly to the consumers. The question to be answered - Are they going after the GoPuff convenience style consumer or more traditional grocery delivery with this play?
TechCrunch - Amazon’s in-garage delivery is now available in 4,000 US Cities
How to safely deliver packages when residents aren’t home has been a question that delivery companies have been trying to figure out. Consumers have shown reluctance to let strangers into their house even though some brave households are using services like Walmart’s shelf to fridge where the delivery person unloads the groceries directly into the consumers fridge. Amazon has found what might be a sweet spot allowing delivery drivers to open the garage to safely store the packages away from sticky-fingered passerbys. This delivery method is inherently limited to those households that have a MyQ garage door which the Amazon delivery drivers can access but I think those households that do will find this to be a very convenient service.
Progressive Grocer - Walmart, Nuro Advance Autonomous Grocery Delivery
Autonomous Grocery delivery has been a hot news topic in 2020. One big question still remains - How do the packages get from the car to the door when the shopper isn’t home? Are they left on the street? What about in the city - are they left on the sidewalk? If there isn’t an option to get it delivered when the shopper isn’t home this will inevitably cut into the “convenience” of delivery.
Supermarket News - SpartanNash offers free pickup, half-off delivery for the holidays
Retailers supplied by SpartanNash are heating up the competition for online grocery deliveries as they roll out initiatives that will lower the overall cost of delivery and pickup services based on basket sizes. This is an instance where the title of the article is more enticing than the actual body as the offering free delivery on pick up orders of $50 or more and half off delivery on baskets of $100 or more. These are just above the averages that consumers are spending per basket as the average grocery delivery basket is currently in the mid-$90 range. Half off delivery really amounts to a $3.50-$5 savings for the consumer which when expressed in as a percentage is not all that enticing for the consumer. Let’s see if this actually makes a difference in winning grocery share back from retailers that have made meaningful developments to the online experience and platform-ease-of-use.
Business Insider - Shoppers who use food stamps are turning to Amazon to buy groceries online during the pandemic, and it could help the company win business away from Walmart
More and more retailers are trying to capitalize on the easing of SNAP benefits from the USDA which Walmart has traditionally controlled - approximately 18% of benefits were utilized at Walmart last year. With COVID reaching new highs and states rolling out stricter stay at home orders the households that depend on these benefits - which reached 22 million in April of this year - being able to use these for online delivery could mean a swift change in grocery retailer loyalty.
