Target expands Instacart delivery to new market

MINNEAPOLIS — Target is expanding its Instacart same-day delivery service to another major U.S. city.

 

Following a successful pilot in Minneapolis, Target is now partnering with Instacart to offer customers in the San Francisco Bay Area fresh food, non-perishable food items, health and beauty products, pet and household supplies, and select baby items delivered to their homes in as little as one hour.

 

"We've received great feedback from our launch in September, so we're pleased to expand this offering to our guests in San Francisco," said Jason Goldberger, president of Target.com and mobile. "Our goal is to make grocery shopping easier and more convenient, so that our guests can shop Target wherever, whenever and however they want."

 

The initial delivery area includes ZIP codes throughout San Francisco, the East Bay, the South Bay, the Northern Peninsula, and the Southern Peninsula.

 

Target’s decision to offer Instacart delivery in San Francisco comes one day after Best Buy announced a similar partnership with Deliv. Amazon.com is of course the leading provider of same-day online deliveries, and these back-to-back initiatives demonstrate both how Amazon has become the leading competitor of almost every major “big-box” chain and how important the San Francisco market is to national retailers.

 

Numerous other retailers are now engaged in same-day delivery efforts. Assisting these retailers are third-party services like Deliv and Instacart, as well as shared transportation providers like Uber.

 

Same-day delivery allows customers to enjoy the convenience of e-commerce with close to the immediacy of in-store retailing. Depending on how far a consumer is from a certain store and how quickly the product is delivered, it could even prove more timely.