Ohi, a startup looking to democratize same-day delivery for smaller direct-to-customer brands with analytics and micro fulfillment centers in unused commercial spaces, has raised $2.75 million in a seed funding round led by Flybridge Capital Partners. Its first MFCs are in Manhattan, Brooklyn and LA, with more to come in SF and DC.
Fourteen months after introducing same-day grocery delivery in New York, Walmart has shut down fresh grocery delivery through Jet.com as the operation had stumbled badly, according to Bloomberg, including price increases to offset an estimated $20 loss per delivery. Jet will continue to delivery non-perishable items in New York.
Maybe they should’ve stuck with “Walking in Memphis.” Several FedEx delivery robots, collectively dubbed Roxo, were seen prowling the streets of Manhattan recently, but instead of getting a red-carpet welcome they elicited some Bronx cheers, according to the New York Post. The city threatened to physically remove any it spotted.
Target’s strong Q3 performance, with 31% growth in ecommerce sales – just under the 34% in Q2 – continued the trend of same-day order fulfillment services driving growth. Target is the first to offer curbside pickup in all 50 states. In Q3, sales volume fulfilled by Shipt more than doubled, while curbside sales grew by more than 500%.
U.S. shoppers wants lots of choices, great deals and delivery reliability over speed this holiday season, according to a survey of more than 3,000 consumers by ecommerce platform provider CommerceHub. 68% of respondents said they were either very likely or somewhat likely to shop on the major deal days, a 25% increase over 2018.
In our latest MCM CommerceChat podcast, we talk to Robyn Meyer, partner, enterprise solutions at Transportation Insight, about challenges and opportunities in this disruptive environment, as well as some strategy, process and system changes companies can make to improve profitability and performance.
Same-day delivery platform Postmates is going live with a delivery app in the Shopify App Store, in beta during Q3, that lets smaller Shopify merchants offer customers the new option of two-hour delivery as the immediacy wars continue to heat up. Merchants receive email notifications when customers opt for two-hour delivery.
Amazon waited an entire month to swing back at Walmart’s new same-day grocery delivery program, making delivery from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods free for Prime members by eliminating the $14.99/month charge on $35 and up orders. It’s available in 2,000 cities and towns, mostly through Amazon’s 480 Whole Foods stores.
On-the-way delivery app Roadie has partnered with Delta Cargo to enable the first cross-country, same-day delivery service for critical items such as medical devices and machine parts using air cargo and last-mile drivers in tandem. While critical-need items are the most natural use case, ecommerce deliveries are not far behind.
Israeli automation startup Fabric, formerly known as CommonSense Robotics, has raised $110 million in a Series B round with plans to accelerate growth in the U.S. including plans to build 14 on-site micro fulfillment centers to enable same-day delivery. The first FC will open in New York in Q1, with several other cities following.