US delivery start-ups Postmates, Instacart and Shyp as well as Amazon and Google are all expanding their same-day delivery services to more US cities.
Fast-growing Postmates has expanded its delivery network by 25% with the addition of ten more cities, giving it a total of 40 US cities where it now operates. The new cities include Baltimore, Columbus, Jersey City, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Palm Springs, Pittsburgh, Raleigh and St. Louis.
The company has also teamed up with Walgreens, the largest US drugstore chain, to offer on-demand delivery of beauty, household, health and wellness items, initially from 600 stores across the country, at an introductory price of $4.99 per delivery.
In parallel, online marketplace Etsy is now testing same-day delivery in New York City using the Postmates service, according to US technology media. The new ‘Etsy ASAP’ service offers rapid delivery of selected products via an express delivery option.
According to US media, Postmates now has a delivery fleet of nearly 15,000 riders and drivers and has made more than four million deliveries for some 65,000 merchants across the US to date.
Meanwhile, retail chain Target has signed up Instacart, the same-day grocery delivery service, for a test programme in Minneapolis. Online shoppers can buy goods online from two Target stores for delivery within an hour or on the same day. The partnership makes Minneapolis into Instacart’s 18th metropolitan area.
“There is a lot going on at Instacart – new cities, new partnerships, new types of products – but most important, we are excited to be reaching so many new customers and giving them a way to shop that meets their needs and fits their busy lifestyles,” said Apoorva Mehta, the company’s founder and CEO, in a blog posting.
Separately, start-up rival Shyp has launched in Chicago, its fifth city and first in the Midwest.
These moves are intensifying competition between the start-ups, which tend to cooperate mostly with physical retailers rather than e-retailers, and Amazon with its broadening range of delivery services, including Prime Now and Amazon Fresh, as well as with Google’s expanding delivery service Google Express.
Amazon last week launched its Prime Now one-hour delivery service in Los Angeles and the nearby Orange County area, offering delivery of products from Amazon and also various local stores. The company said it has established four Prime Now hubs in southern California to serve its Prime members with ‘superfast delivery on tens of thousands of items’.
“Customers love the convenience of getting items delivered right to their doors in under an hour,” said Stephenie Landry, director of Amazon’s Prime Now service. “The logistical expertise that we’ve developed since day one fuels Prime Now and we’re excited to expand one and two-hour delivery to Los Angeles and surrounding areas.”
With the addition of Los Angeles, Prime Now operates in 13 cities worldwide. In comparison, Google Express, already available in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Chicago, and Washington DC, expanded earlier this month to six more US states.
