After weeks of concentrating its fire on Amazon, Walmart is now dealing with a flank action from Target as the latter has fully integrated its Shipt same-day delivery service with Target.com.
Walmart, for its part, just launched a $98 per year subscription program for same-day grocery delivery, a service that normally costs $9.95 per order.
With the Shipt integration, shoppers can visit the Sameday page on Target.com to browse 65,000 items available for same-day delivery, including groceries, household essentials, pet products, baby products and some apparel. They can also reorder items and search categories, and opt for store pickup or delivery for $9.99 per order without a Shipt membership, which costs $99 per year.
Target said between them, Shipt, curbside and in-store pickup accounted for more half of its 42% ecommerce sales growth in Q1, and 25% of its same-store sales growth. The company said store fulfillment, either pickup or delivery, is 90% cheaper than shipping orders from a fulfillment center.
Target tested same-day delivery with a $9.99 fee in nine markets before announcing the Target.com integration, according to CNBC, with basket sizes increasing about 10% to 15%, compared to shoppers using Shipt’s site or app.
Walmart’s Delivery Unlimited allows shoppers to pay the annual fee of $98, or $12.95 per month to get unlimited store pickup or home delivery of online orders. According to TechCrunch, Walmart is piloting Delivery Unlimited in Houston, Miami, Salt Lake City, and Tampa.
Walmart has also recently reintroduced in-home delivery to the garage or kitchen refrigerator, after previously backing away from the service, which is also being trialed by Amazon. Walmart eCommerce President and CEO Marc Lore said the company is on track to offer grocery pickup from 3,100 stores and same-day grocery delivery from 1,600 stores by the end of 2019.