Seeing greater demand from customers for immediate fulfillment of ecommerce orders, Bath Bath & Beyond is expanding its same-day delivery to 700 stores covering nearly 16,000 ZIP codes, a near doubling, through a partnership with Roadie.
At the same time, the retailer – which also owns Buy Buy Baby stores – is now allowing customers to pick up online orders from the night before at curbside as early as 8 a.m. “during the morning commute,” generally an hour before the stores open.
“We are excited to further reinvent digital services like same-day delivery and buy online pickup curbside or in store to get orders in the hands of our customers even sooner,” said Rafeh Masood, EVP and Chief Digital Officer of Bed Bath & Beyond, in a release. “The country is getting ‘back to normal’ and we want to give consumers expanded flexibility on how to get online orders, within hours.”
Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Mark Tritton told analysts last month that data is showing that services like curbside and same-day delivery are creating more stickiness and loyalty among its customers. Other partners include Shipt and DoorDash, the latter expanding beyond its grocery roots.
“Our goal is to get goods to our customer faster and create more joy there,” Tritton said. “And that’s happening with new customers as well as existing. And I think people are being really, really excited about the ease and convenience of shopping Bed Bath & Beyond compared to years gone by. … We’re seeing repeat purchases and repeat engagement as people become really happy with what that service delivers.”
Riding the home improvement wave borne of the pandemic, as well being a darling of the Reddit trading phenomenon, Bed Bath & Beyond saw its share price quadruple in the past year, but it has fallen as investor enthusiasm has waned with a return to somewhat normalcy, Bloomberg reports.
Roadie, which has a network of more than 200,000 drivers, began discussing the rollout with the retailer earlier this year, said its CEO, Marc Gorlin.
“We can handle orders of any size, their brands, whether it’s a set of towels or a larger item like a crib,” Gorlin said. “Our drivers have everything from SUVs and cargo vans to cars, so we can flex size, distance and location pretty well. It’s fully integrated with their ecommerce system, so a customer seamlessly passes through to get same-day delivery in the cart at checkout by selecting Roadie, and we bring it to their door.”
Gorlin said he hasn’t seen demand soften from the fourth quarter of 2020, but instead it has increased as it’s coming from all different verticals. He said retailers need to realize they have to offer shoppers “optionality” at checkout, “and if they’re not willing to come to the store, they have to bring the store to them.”
“It’s different than other years,” he said. “Everyone is having a hard time predicting what will happen in Q4 this year, and they’re trying to use 2019 for comps. Customers were forced to use ecommerce during the pandemic, including different demographics. My parents didn’t know they could order from Walmart or Instacart, so why do they want to go to a store anymore?”