Walmart Canada launches 30-minute grocery delivery
The grocery-delivery race is on.
Walmart Canada is bringing 30-minute delivery to customers in the Greater Toronto Area through Walmart Now, a new “virtual convenience offering.”
The pilot is launching with delivery partner Instacart. Orders will be picked at 10 Walmart locations, which have a delivery reach of about 40% of the GTA.
Nearly 4,000 of Walmart’s most-shopped items will be available through Walmart Now, including fresh groceries, pantry and household essentials like pet, baby and personal care items, and snacks. Walmart’s regular pickup and delivery assortment numbers around 65,000.
“Launching Walmart Now, our new Canadian convenience offering featuring our quickest delivery speeds, is proof that Walmart Canada is here to drive change in the e-commerce space,” said Laurent Duray, chief e-commerce officer, Walmart Canada, in a press release. “We’re nimble, we’re determined and we're here to change the way Canadians shop online with Walmart. Piloting 30-minute delivery is a milestone in our roadmap to making it faster, easier and more convenient than ever to shop with us.”
The announcement came just one day after Loblaw announced its new rapid grocery-delivery service with DoorDash. Loblaw customers in major Canadian cities, including Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary, can order select items through the grocer’s PC Express service for delivery in 30 minutes or less.
“Customers today expect convenience and quick delivery paired with broad selection,” said Chris Rogers, vice-president of retail at Instacart. “By collaborating with leading retailers like Walmart and providing Instacart Platform solutions that are purpose-built for grocery, we’re making it easier for retailers to get customers exactly what they need, when they need it.”
The big-box stores aren’t the only players in the rapid grocery-delivery space.
Vancouver startup Tiggy launched in Toronto earlier this year. Customers can shop nearly 2,000 SKUs across categories such as produce, dairy and healthcare, and have orders delivered in 15 minutes.
Startup Ninja Delivery, which launched last year in Waterloo, Ont., launched in Toronto this past February. It was recently acquired by online grocery service Inabuggy Inc., which recently changed the name of its customer-facing service to Buggy.