ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Gopuff, a virtual on-demand convenience store, is launching private-label products, as it aims to provide its customers with a wider and more eclectic range of goods than they’d find in a convenience store, and it delivers orders to customers in about 15 minutes.
The Information reports that Gopuff will start with its own bottled water line under the brand name Basically, and it has filed trademark applications for own-branded snack, household products and health and wellness products, including prescription medication and medical testing devices like blood pressure monitors.
The Philadelphia-based startup is trying to differentiate itself from convenience stores by offering a broader range of products, and it’s setting itself apart from DoorDash, which introduced a 10-minute delivery service in New York in December, as well as 10-minute grocery delivery services, by having brick-and-mortar stores, as well as delivery of hot meals like pizza.
GoPuff was last valued at $15 billion by investors, and a public listing could happen as early as the second half of 2022. During the past seven years, Gopuff has amassed a network of more than 250 micro-fulfillment centers that service 650-plus U.S. cities in 41 states and Washington, D.C., and it recently acquired 161 BevMo! Stores.
Gopuff serves about 1,000 cities from more than 550 locations globally, and it’s opening an average of one or two more a day. According to Bloomberg, the company’s fast growth includes issues such as identifying the best places for Gopuff’s warehouses, anticipating what items to stock to meet local demand, keeping perishable items from going bad and staffing its delivery operations in a competitive labor market.
According to NACS’ “Last Mile Fulfillment in Convenience Retail” report, only 61% of retailers are satisfied with their third-party delivery partners. Concerns include high fees, little access to consumer data, difficulties delivering age-restricted products and service and operational issues. Read more about these challenges and what c-stores are doing to make delivery work for their businesses in “Delivering Convenience” in the December 2021 issue of NACS Magazine.