Costco Jumps On The Same-Day Delivery Bandwagon With Google Shopping Express

By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA

Google looks to compete against Amazon; Costco hopes to be a more convenient holiday shopping destination for its customers

This week, Google announced that retailer Costco has signed on to deliver its goods through Google Shopping Express same-day delivery service — the highest profile new partnership for the program since September when Shopping Express became an available service in the San Francisco Bay Area. This development will be beneficial for both Costco and Google, enabling them both to better compete in a world where customers are looking for the most convenient, hassle-free shopping experiences.

In particular, this arrangement sets Google up to battle Amazon, which has initiated several key strategies to increase its outreach and shipping speed. This summer, the online retail giant announced it was entering the online grocery market with its Amazon Fresh program. This service, which is available currently in the Seattle and Los Angeles areas, enables customers to order groceries online and have them delivered in insulated containers to their doors within a 1-3 hour window. The company even has a program that works with restaurants, bakeries, and other small businesses to deliver prepared foods to customer’s doorsteps. Similarly, Amazon recently announced that it was entering into a partnership with the United State Post Office to expand deliveries to Sundays for no extra charge.

Now, with Cosco on its roster of Shopping Express businesses, Google has expanded into an important retail outlet. Google now has on its platform Target and Costco, the third and fourth largest U.S. retailers, which together bring in $140 billion a year. Similarly, by partnering with brick-and-mortar retailers, Google saves itself the cost of building warehouses and purchasing inventory itself.

Too, considering that Costco is best known for providing consumers with a surplus of oversized goods, this is a good move for the retailer to get its difficult-to-handle goods more easily to customers. As Brian Elliot, head of partnerships for Google Shopping Express says, this move is being made at the perfect time — right on the brink of the busy holiday season. Costco will be the perfect outlet for Google Shopping customers who are looking to stock up on” holiday essentials that are bulky, heavy, and hard to schlep,” Elliot says. All customers have to do is go to their computer — or use their Android or iPhone — to place their order online and enjoy the holidays with family, rather than spending precious time waiting in long store lines.

To appeal to customers during the busy holiday season, Google is spreading the word about this new partnership, highlighting the fact that the retailer is offering the same prices online and in-store, plus six months of free same-day delivery. In addition, new customers will receive $5 off their first order. During the busy holiday season, any discount and possibility of receiving large amounts of goods with minimal shopping trips should be an appealing option to draw consumers online to Costco via the Google platform.

Same-day delivery isn't the only way retailers are improving the customer experience. Click here to see how fulfillment and the retail supply chain are leading the charge.

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