The grocery delivery landscape just got a lot more interesting.
Sam’s Club, a division of Walmart, is partnering with Instacart to offer same-day delivery. It adds yet another major grocer to Instacart’s arsenal as it prepares to compete against Amazon and Whole Foods.
In a joint press release, Instacart and Sam’s Club says they’ll roll out the service in three markets to start: Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and St. Louis, Missouri.
The new partnership raises questions about the future of Walmart’s grocery delivery business and whether it might one day partner with Instacart at large.
Walmart increasingly competes with Amazon in the ecommerce and grocery space and has been building its own delivery system with partners like Uber and Google. But investors punished Walmart after its latest quarter showed slowing ecommerce sales. Shares saw their biggest one-day drop since 1988 on the news.
In a note to clients after the earnings disappointment, Credit Suisse wrote that the retailer could redeem itself through a golden opportunity in online groceries.
As Sam’s Club tests the waters with Instacart, investors are likely look at whether the grocery delivery startup could help Walmart lift ecommerce sales by giving it access to numerous markets at once.
Sachin Padwal, Sam’s Club’s VP of Omnichannel and In-Club Product says in the press release, “Instacart is a trusted partner by so many customers, we are thrilled to be launching this service with them.”
Instacart is increasingly being seen as big chain grocers’ answer to the Amazon/Whole Foods threat and retail giants like Walmart that are pushing into grocery delivery.
After Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods, Instacart expanded partnerships with Costco and CVS and signed new deals with Albertsons and Krogers.
With Sam’s Club, Instacart now partners with the top seven grocers in North America and pits much of the industry against the incoming behemoth, Amazon.
