— Elizabeth Marsten, Senior Director of Strategic Marketplace Services
The first third-party delivery service on this list, Instacart uses local shoppers to pick up orders from your grocer and deliver them to your door. You can purchase from any store on the Instacart app, from Costco to Trader Joe’s–and even purchase from multiple stores in one go. The app provides you with live updates as the shopper gathers your purchases, and you can pick substitute products in case your favorites are out of stock.
Membership: Not required
What is online grocery delivery?
— Ben Whitrock, Senior Growth Media Manager at Tinuiti
Fee: Included with membership
Not all locations are covered by Boxed Express, but you can easily check by entering your zip code into the Boxed Express website or app.
Does online grocery delivery work?
FreshDirect has a much smaller footprint than other options on this list, but the quality of the organic produce and meat products available rival even that of Amazon Fresh. You can order both groceries and prepared meals, and certain regions even allow you to purchase alcohol.
Availability: 900 Safeway locations
Yes, the shopping giant Costco has also gotten into the grocery delivery game, with a reach almost as large as Walmart’s. Costco members will be able to take advantage of Costco’s bulk products, but the selection is much more limited than what you would find on Walmart Grocery and Amazon Fresh.
Services like Amazon Fresh gradually rose in prominence, but online grocery delivery never hit it big until recently when “convenience” stopped being its only major benefit. Now, grocery delivery services are a crucial part of many customers’ lives and have changed the way groceries do business.
Thrive Market is an online-only grocery retailer that specializes in healthy and organic products. This includes item categories like supplements, beauty and home living. They lean heavily on sustainability and promote their carbon-neutral shipping practices, recyclable/compostable packaging, and zero-waste warehouses.
Safeway is a pretty popular brand for those people living on the West Coast, and loyal shoppers will be thrilled at their home delivery service. Customers who purchase on their online store can have groceries delivered to their home for a delivery fee. They offer free delivery for orders that are 0 and up, but that requires some major shopping to achieve.
Top online grocery delivery services
There are also third-party online grocery delivery services that offer to pick up the ordered items from the retailer themselves. This allows consumers to purchase items from retailers that can’t provide their own delivery service and helps businesses service customers who want alternative means of shopping.
Amazon Fresh
Fees:
Availability: Nationwide
“Customers are also moving rapidly from thinking just perishable staples to adding shelf-stables and other CPG products like cosmetics, health, and of course, alcohol. If you are in-store at a participating retailer, then an Instacart ads program should be part of your media strategy.”
Walmart has held its own by improving on its own in-store pick-up model (Walmart Grocery Pickup) by leveraging its massive network of over 4,700 physical stores that can reach 90% of the US population.
Membership: /year or .95/mo
Walmart Grocery
An annual Thrive membership offers perks you won’t find anywhere else, such as free gifts and product samples. Thrive will even sponsor a free membership for a family in need for every new annual membership they sign.
Online groceries and their associated delivery services have long passed the point of being a novelty, and are becoming increasingly common among consumers.
Boxed’s mostly sells and ships bulk products to consumers and offices, but also sells perishable goods and groceries via its Boxed Express service. You can pick from any item on its extensive Express Grocery menu, from produce to dairy to frozen foods, which are hand-picked from local stores and delivered by designated Boxed Shoppers at a time you arrange in advance.
Boxed’s mostly sells and ships bulk products to consumers and offices, but also sells perishable goods and groceries via its Boxed Express service. You can pick from any item on its extensive Express Grocery menu, from produce to dairy to frozen foods, which are hand-picked from local stores and delivered by designated Boxed Shoppers at a time you arrange in advance.
Grocery shopping was a big deal even before the pandemic. It took a lot of time to do and had to be squeezed in among work, child-care, cooking, and the boring-but-necessary household tasks. If any part of our lives needed to be disrupted, it was this.
To learn more, check out The 7 Biggest Online Grocery Shopping Trends & Tactics for Brands.
Thrive Market
Walmart Grocery is Walmart’s take on online grocery, and while it can’t match the delivery speed of Amazon Fresh, Walmart’s advantage lies in its sheer range of products. Anything that is on the shelf of a Walmart can be delivered with your grocery items–electronics, toys, and household appliances.
Walmart Grocery is Walmart’s take on online grocery, and while it can’t match the delivery speed of Amazon Fresh, Walmart’s advantage lies in its sheer range of products. Anything that is on the shelf of a Walmart can be delivered with your grocery items–electronics, toys, and household appliances.
Walmart Grocery is Walmart’s take on online grocery, and while it can’t match the delivery speed of Amazon Fresh, Walmart’s advantage lies in its sheer range of products. Anything that is on the shelf of a Walmart can be delivered with your grocery items–electronics, toys, and household appliances.
As of this writing, the top online grocery delivery services (in no particular order) are:
According to the same report, 90% of users who purchased from online groceries had their items delivered directly to their residence or office, which outperformed all other pickup options by an overwhelming margin, such as in-store pickup (22%), curbside pickup (22%) and delivery to a locker (e.g. Amazon Hub–3%).
Membership: Amazon Prime membership required
Availability:
Amazon Fresh has partnered with Whole Foods to provide fresh groceries to Amazon Prime members all over the United States. Amazon’s grocery delivery service retains its commitment to fast turnaround times, and can deliver purchases to your door in as little as an hour.
