New Grocery App, Shipt, Trying To Disrupt The Normal Shopping Experience, Can This Go Global?

Grocery shopping is just one of those household tasks that take up a couple of hours every week. With modern families trying to balance work and family, this part of the household task is something that could be leveraged. This is where the grocery app Shipt comes in.

Shipt is an on-demand grocery delivery app service based in Alabama. It is currently opened in 24 locations in the U.S. and it has recently expanded in Florida.

Founder and CEO of Shipt Bill Smith said they have expanded in Florida because there were multiple requests for the Shipt service in that area.

“As we expand throughout Florida, we continue to hear from Floridians across the state who express a need for grocery delivery,” said Shipt CEO.

Shipt is now available in Space Coast, Cocoa Beach, Cocoa, Palm Bay, Melbourne, Merritt Island, Titusville and Rockledge, according to Space Coast Daily.

Shipt has a very easy process. Once the user has downloaded the app, the user can see the vast selection of products and goods that can be bought in the supermarket. The corresponding prices of the products are also listed in the app.

Once the order is completed, the total for the order is placed in the app and Shipt will be prompted of the order. A Shipt personnel will then do the grocery shopping. The user can also add notes if they will have specific instructions on the order.

Users can also receive text messages from the Shipt personnel. On average, Users receive the order delivery in about an hour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEtQ01UeTow

Just Like Uber…But For Groceries

Smith saw a need for this market.

“Grocery are something that we need all the time…to be able to take that and turn it into something that you can literally just order in your phone at anytime throughout the day… really simplifies life.”

However, it was not the first time this idea was thought of and executed. Publix was the first business to initiate the movement for grocery deliveries in 2001. After two years, Publix’s deliver service was cut out because of the big loss in investment, according to Florida Trend.

Though Publix has no plans to renew this service, they are now partnering with Shipt to reach out to their customers.

As a service-based app, Shipt is looking more like Uber. The company has plans on expanding their hiring to about 300 more shoppers in their different locations. They even posted a job ad in Craigslist that offers $10 to $20 per hour to the Shoppers.

“You go onto the shopper app and mark which days and windows of time you’ll be in an area ready to shop,” said Shipt Community Manager Anne Adams. “We get some people who do this full-time, some stay-at-home moms, some college students, some retirees.”

Shoppers earn about 7.5 percent of the basic order and a possible $5 tip. Unlike in Uber, Shipt has a max line for Shopper tipping. If the grocery order is $100, the Shopper will earn $12.50 if there is a tip.

Though this is an agreeable type of compensation for the Shoppers, a user has already voiced out his opinion about their tipping rule.

“Got my 2nd Shipt delivery today and again felt very obliged to tip but did not have any cash. Their website makes no qualms about the fact that tips are not expected and that they pay their drivers a good hourly rate,” the user posted.

As a response, a Shipt Shopper stated that he hopes the users would “consider tipping.” Since their payouts were changed from $15 per order to 7.5 percent per order, they would be getting about $8 for every $50 order and that would include gas expenses and more.

“They are adding a tipping feature to the app so people who don’t have cash on hand can tip using their card instead, but unless they do something else such as up the pay some or bundle orders together somehow, we are not making much money.”

Because of the other expenses on the Shipt shopping process, the costs of the products listed on the app could differ from the actual costs in the super markets. Users will also have to pay for a monthly plan of $14.99 or an annual plan of $99 to use the app. Both plans will have unlimited grocery delivery for orders $35 above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NVgXrce93E

[Image Credit: YouTube/Shipt]