Instacart is a popular grocery delivery service that began in 2012. It allows you to place an order at the grocery store of your choice, and a shopper does all the work, from picking your items to delivering them to your door. Currently, Instacart is one of the largest grocery delivery services worldwide and provides same-day delivery on orders over $35 with a $3.99 fee. Other competitors offer similar services for those who enjoy choosing which company best fits their needs.
#1 Shipt
- Founded: 2014
- Headquarters: Birmingham, Alabama
Need To Know
Shipt was founded in 2014 by Bill Smith in Birmingham, Alabama. Smith came up with an idea for a same-day delivery service geared to big-box retailers, in response to his own shopping hatred and as a way to avoid the task altogether. He wanted to create a service that allowed people to go onto a retailer’s website, place an order, and deliver it on the same day.
Smith knew it would require an extensive network of contracted shoppers to make his idea come to life, but undeterred used his own capital to start the company. At first, he couldn’t convince retailers that the business was a profitable idea, but it slowly caught on with both retailers and customers alike. In 2018, Target acquired Shipt for an impressive amount of over half a billion dollars. Currently, Shipt offers its same-day unlimited service for $99/ year or $14/ month with free delivery on orders of $35 or more.
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#2 FreshDirect
- Founded: 1999
- Headquarters: New York City, NY
Need To Know
FreshDirect was founded in 1999 by Joe Fedele and Jason Ackerman in New York City, New York. As an online grocery store, it originally served the New York area, building a large customer base due, in part, to its lower prices than typical Manhattan retailers, convenience, and the freshness of the food. In its early years, it struggled to gain traction, however with a new strategy layout in 2010, the service took off and quickly grew to a loyal customer base.
Currently, FreshDirect serves the New York Metropolitan area and counties in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Washington D.C. Customers can access the service online or through a mobile app. FreshDirect has around 3000 employees and brings in $600 million in revenue yearly.
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#3 DoorDash
- Founded: 2013
- Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Need To Know
DoorDash began with founders Tony Xu, Stanley Tang, Andy Fang, and Evan Moor in 2013 as a delivery service for a local Macaroon store owner. Originally named Palo Alto Delivery, the company received a $120,000 contribution and was incorporated as DoorDash. The company quickly grew in popularity and began servicing customers nationwide. In 2018 DoorDash became the second-largest seller of delivery food sales in the United States, which they quickly pushed to number one in the early months of 2019. During the pandemic,
DoorDash offered all its delivery drivers free gloves, hand sanitizer, and masks and switched to contactless delivery. That month they became the fastest-growing food delivery service in the United States. DoorDash charges a commission of 15% on every order on the app, a credit card processing fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 per order when buying from a storefront, or an $8 flat fee when ordering from third-party apps.
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#4 Thrive Market
- Founded: 2015
- Headquarters: Los Angeles, California
Need To Know
Thrive Market began in 2015 by founders Nick Green, Gunner Lovelace, Kate Mulling, and Sasha Siddhartha. Thrive Market is an online grocery store that seeks to eliminate food markup by removing the brick-and-mortar aspect and providing customers with high-quality products through an online membership. Known as “Costco meets Whole Foods,” Thrive Market has wholesale products with organic, gluten-free, and Thrive brands available.
The membership cost is $60 per year and comes with a savings guarantee. Any member who doesn’t earn back the membership fee in savings receives a refund for the difference in a shopping credit when purchasing the following year’s membership. Thrive also donates one membership to a family in need for every purchased one, making them accessible to everyone.
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#5 Amazon Fresh
- Founded: 2017
- Headquarters: Seattle, Washington
Need To Know
Amazon Fresh is an offshoot of Amazon and began originally as Amazon Grocery. It started its beta launch to select zip codes, and on March 29, 2017, opened its first drive-in grocery store for Amazon Prime subscribers. Customers could shop online and reserve a time to pick their groceries up from the store, where they were able to stay in their cars as workers brought their orders out and loaded them into their vehicles. In 2019 select Amazon Fresh began delivering groceries to customers’ homes in select areas with plans to increase the service throughout the country.
Currently, Amazon Fresh services are in America and throughout Europe, and its delivery services are free for Prime Subscribers. Whole Foods has collaborated with Amazon to provide a more comprehensive array of products to its customers and making it one of the largest food delivery providers in the world.
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#6 Walmart+
- Founded: 2020
- Headquarters: Bentonville, Arkansas
Need To Know
Walmart+ is a relatively new grocery delivery service but has quickly grown to provide its services to over 16,000 cities nationwide. Utilizing its robust namesake company, Walmart+ allows its customers to order their groceries online and have them delivered to their door on the same day. Seeing the high demand for safety during the pandemic year of 2020, Walmart capitalized on the opportunity to offer groceries in the store and deliver them.
This subscription-based service is available to customers for $98 per year or $12.95 per month and includes free delivery on all orders. As the service continues to gain in popularity, Walmart is seeing a massive increase in revenue, generating over $524 billion to date.
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#7 Cornershop
- Founded: 2015
- Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Need To Know
Cornershop is a startup company that Uber recently purchased over 50% stock in. in July 2020, Rideshare purchased the remaining 47% stock, giving it the green light to grow and expand. Offering food delivery to customers from many different grocery stores, Cornershop is a growing company backed by reputable, well-known businesses, offering food delivery to customers from many other grocery stores.
Cornershop offers customers the option to become shoppers and make money as an easy and fun side-hustle. It is a subscription-based service that delivers everything you need, from groceries to pet food. Customers can download the app and work directly with their shoppers to ensure they get the exact products they want.
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#8 Dumpling
- Founded: 2017
- Headquarters: Seattle, Washington
Need To Know
Founded by Joel Shapiro and Nate D’Anna, Dumpling is a shopper-centric company geared at helping its shoppers start their own business and develop their own clientele. Every shopper pays a $10 set up fee and then a $39 per month or $5 per transaction fee for all booked jobs. Dumpling has helped over 2,000 personal shoppers begin their own full or part-time delivery service business nationwide.
With Dumpling, customers can choose the same shopper every time, regardless of where they want to purchase their groceries. This option helps build a customer/shopper relationship, making the process more streamlined and satisfactory for everyone involved. 2020 saw Dumpling grow by 20%, and it continues to gain popularity with both customers and new shoppers alike.