SAN FRANCISCO—ALDI has teamed up with Instacart to launch ALDI Express, which is a virtual convenience store offering delivery in as fast as 30 minutes. ALDI Express gives customers access to nearly 2,000 of the most-shopped ALDI items, including convenience items such as prepared foods, snacks and drinks, grocery staples and household essentials.
“We know our customers live hectic lives, and sometimes that means they don’t have time to make it to the grocery store—even for a quick trip. Through ALDI Express, we’re making shopping more convenient so you can satisfy a craving or get a missing ingredient in minutes,” said Scott Patton, vice president of national buying at ALDI. “Together with Instacart, we’ll continue to find ways to innovate and make the online grocery experience even more effortless and accessible.”
“We’re proud to deepen our partnership with ALDI through the introduction of ALDI Express. With this launch, we’re making it easier for customers nationwide to get their favorite ALDI staples delivered faster than ever before,” said Ryan Hamburger, vice president of retail at Instacart.
ALDI began offering delivery services via Instacart in 2017. Instacart now delivers from more than 2,200 ALDI stores and powers pickup for more than 1,500 ALDI stores nationwide. The companies expanded their partnership in 2018 to include alcohol delivery, and ALDI was one of the first retailers to accept EBT SNAP online through Instacart in November 2020.
Last summer, Walmart Canada launched a virtual convenience store via Instacart for customers in the Greater Toronto Area, called Walmart Now. Orders are received in as fast as 30 minutes and are facilitated directly through existing Walmart stores.
Walmart has said it is homing in on delivering convenience to its customers. The company’s pickup and delivery capacity grew 20% last year, and it plans a 35% increase this year.
“We’ve watched in real time as people foundationally changed their shopping habits, spurred not just by a global pandemic, but by the expectation for availability to also mean convenience,” wrote Walmart. “That need for convenience led to six times the number of customers using delivery in the fourth quarter compared to pre-pandemic levels, signaling a huge change in how our customers shop.”
“People have many different shopping needs, often in the same week, and the goal of Instacart’s technology and fulfillment solutions is to help retailers best serve their customers, whether that’s through delivery in minutes, ‘No Rush’ next-day delivery, or pickup,” Instacart told Modern Retail in a recent article. The company added that its “convenience offering has grown significantly in the last year as retailers look to serve their customers in all the ways they want to shop.”