In addition to Target, ABC Fine Wine and Spirits, Central Market, Fry's, Harris Teeter, H-E-B, Kroger, Meijer, Publix and Western are supported.Two membership options: $99/year or $14/month ( Deal alert: $49 for the first year through 2/26!).Shipt grocery delivery: Signing up, ordering, prices and moreīefore I share more details about my experience, there are some key things you should know about how Shipt operates before placing an order: Shipt’s high expertise in shipping and last-mile delivery, along with its customer feedback, is showing that delivery on the same day and order ahead is what’s needed to support today’s market.RELATED: 7 things I learned while using my Instant Pot for 14 days straight The buzz around the industry is super-fast and the “need for speed” but Shipt is not betting on this for long-term customer satisfaction.
SHIPIT DELIVERY DRIVERS
With several delivery brands pushing for hyper-fast delivery speeds, Shipt is instead betting big on personalization and high-quality service as the prime drivers for success and customer loyalty in the personal shopping space. The elevated white-glove personalized service is a key consideration for repeat customers. This keeps the customers happy and saves the sale for the retailer. “He really saved the day for me and it is great to have that type of service.” Shipt personal shoppers will often find appropriate substitutions 60% of the time when faced with an out-of-stock situation. Hurst recounted a personal story about her favorite shopper who called her when milk was missing from the grocery list.
With a newly rolled out featured shopper program, Shipt users can select a personal shopper that they want to use as a favorite. What Shipt is seeing and hearing from its customers is that personalized service is a key factor for loyal users. is the secret sauce for Shipt’s business model. Rina Hurst, chief business officer of Shipt, thinks a lot about quality of service and believes it. Hurst said, “The most important factor is delivering to customers within the time commitment promised and we are just not seeing a growth in service requests for ultra-fast delivery.”
For example, according to Shipt, 76% of Party City delivery orders are placed more than three days in advance since most consumers plan parties ahead of time. In terms of non-grocery items, delivery in under 15 minutes is even less of a priority to consumers. Most customers choose same-day over within-the-hour Quality is our secret sauce.” After quality, the next most important consideration for consumers is that the service meets the delivery time commitment. Hurst said, “At Shipt, we think a lot about the quality and this is the center of the equation on every decision we make. Larger companies like DoorDash or Instacart may be able to survive in the space of hyper-fast delivery based on economies of scale, but even so, Shipt is taking a different approach. Many of the startups in instant delivery are scaling back services or increasing delivery times to minimize high operating costs. Jokr, a grocery delivery startup founded in 2021, was losing $159 per order in New York City and other operating companies like Fridge No More were experiencing similar losses. In the first seven months of 2021 investors pumped $10.1 billion into grocery companies, compared with $7 billion in all of 2020. While many small start-ups have jumped on the bandwagon of instant delivery and secured funding to spur what seems to be a consumer trend, most are falling flat on their backs with operating costs making the business model a losing proposition. Courtesy of Shipt Instant delivery is very costly Shipt’s personalized shoppers are able to substitute out-of-stock items 60% of the time.