In the United States, food delivery provider DoorDash has entered the on-demand grocery delivery arena, led by the launch of its new DashPass service. The expanded offering will enable customers to place orders with participating grocery retailers at DoorDash.com or via the DoorDash mobile app.
The service stands to boost DoorDash’s presence in the grocery sector, as the San Francisco-based company has primarily been known for restaurant food delivery.
DoorDash thus far has provided grocery retailers only with last-mile delivery of groceries and meals through its white-label DoorDash Drive service where retail partners fielded, picked and packed the orders. Now DoorDash is bringing to the table an end-to-end online grocery marketplace solution, encompassing ordering, fulfilment and delivery.
“We’ve been partnering with folks like Walmart, Albertsons and Hy-Vee on the last-mile logistics product called DoorDash Drive, where consumers go to those stores’ apps or websites to place orders and then we power the delivery,” explained Fuad Hannon, head of new verticals at DoorDash.
“What we’re now announcing is the ability for users to go to DoorDash.com or the DoorDash app and purchase their groceries on the DoorDash platform.”
A selection of more than 10,000 grocery products, including perishables such as dairy and eggs, fresh meat and fish, and local produce will be available for delivery. Besides grocery, DoorDash recently expanded its delivery platform into the drug and convenience store retail sectors.
“DoorDash is a very merchant-first company. What we want to do is build and deploy what each of our partners want,” continued Hannon.
“Our core ethos is that we want to do what’s right for the merchant. We want to help them grow their business, particularly in this COVID environment that we’re all operating and living in. So depending on what the merchant wants, we will offer that.”
Overall, DoorDash provides on-demand delivery and logistics services to local and national businesses in more than 4,000 cities and all 50 states across the United States, Canada and Australia.
