What if We Kissed in the Walmart Realm?
Instacart adds Home Depot, Lightspeed adds Uber Eats, Wolt's transparency report
Today’s edition is a fun one… we really suggest you keep reading on to get our boots on the (virtual) ground reporting from the Walmart Realm warzone. But before that, we’ve got big new launches and partnerships from Instacart, Uber, DoorDash, Wolt and more!
This week’s edition is brought to you by Nickelytics.
Today:
Home Depot + Instacart, T&T Supermarket + DoorDash
Lightspeed Integrates Uber Eats, Direct
Chart Time | Wolt Releases Transparency Report
We Went to Walmart Realm So You Don’t Have To
3PD | Instacart, DoorDash Add New Retailers
Instacart continued its diversification away from groceries, with the addition of The Home Depot, the nation’s largest home improvements store, to its roster of same-day delivery partners. The partnership adds nearly 2,000 stores to the IC’s app, and thanks to its “big & bulky” solution allows for deliveries of up to 60 pounds. Instacart has worked with competitor Lowe’s since 2022, meaning 3PD’s usual unified search shortcomings now apply to items like screws and ladders…
The Big Picture: Instacart isn’t the only player making moves, with plenty of action happening internationally as well. Up in Canada, DoorDash just added T&T Supermarket, an Asian grocer owned by retail biggie Loblaw, with 33 locations in Alberta, B.C., Ontario and Quebec. Further afield, Indian TNC BluSmart is expanding into Dubai. The fast-growing ridesharer (ARR up 102% YoY) differentiates itself by only using electric vehicles. While it doesn’t yet have a delivery arm, its heavy emphasis on corporate accounts with companies like Delhivery could make a later launch easier, and its entry into Gulf markets will put pressure on players like Careem, Talabat and Deliveroo.
PARTNER | OOH That’s Moving Forward
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3PD | Uber Eats Integrates into Lightspeed POS
Uber Eats and Uber Direct are now natively available in another popular POS and restaurant management system, thanks to a new partnership with Lightspeed Commerce Inc. The partnership starts in North America, with additional markets to follow. Lightspeed is available in the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Australia; the company’s customer base claims 168,000 storefronts.
The Big Picture: Based in Montreal, Lightspeed boasts some famous restaurant brands as customers, including Alinea and Daniel Boulud. But partnerships like these aren’t so interesting for the restaurants you’ve heard of, but for the ones you haven’t. After all, in the race to capture new or fast-growing restaurants and merchants, a 3PD is likely to win accounts based on having the easiest and most integrated tech stack, so now whenever someone fires up Lightspeed for the first time, they’ll think “oh, maybe I should turn on that Uber Eats module.” For its part, Lightspeed recently announced full year revenue of $909.3 million, up 24% YoY.
CHART TIME | What Goes into A Wolt
Wolt, the DoorDash-owned 3PD with a heavy footprint in Europe and parts of Asia, released the third edition of its Algorithmic Transparency Report, shedding some light on how the app routes orders to restaurants, makes recommendations to diners and dispatches workers. When calculating delivery time, for example, these are the inputs that go into computing an estimate:
Delivery distance between venue and consumer
The ratio of ongoing deliveries and active courier partners
Average delivery time in the city in the past 30 mins
Average venue order fulfillment time in the city in the past 30 mins
Average venue order fulfillment time in the city based on different aggregations of historical data
Pickup estimate in the city based on the past month’s pickups
Current weather conditions in the city
MARKETING | Walmart Launches Realm, We Wonder Why
Look, nobody said transitioning a traditional retailer to the world of ecommerce and delivery was going to be easy. We’re sure the road to Bentonville is paved with good intentions, but this latest Walmart launch really has us scratching our heads. Meet the Realm; and while CMO William White says it’s “a lot of fun,” we can assure you it is very much not. We spent 20 minutes clicking around an “immersive world” that feels like a pastel version of one of those Matterport renderings you see on bad Zillow listings, clicking on bubbles near makeup and lamps to collect “Sparkles.” After dutifully finding them all, we were treated to a 20% off coupon, like being made to grovel for your RetailMeNot link. Other options were a sloppy knockoff of the hit 2013 game Flappy Bird, or getting fashion advice from the 3D avatar of an influencer that seemed to have swapped her usual decolletage for a lazy eye.
The Big Picture: Walmart has been all in on adding a shopping layer to other immersive worlds, having launched Walmart Discovered on Roblox just a few weeks ago, after earlier forays like Supercampus and Walmart Land, both in the same ecosystem. The company has since teased that it wants to own, not rent, its virtual real estate. But while we aren’t masochistic enough to test if the Roblox lands are truly fun, they certainly put Walmart where the eyeballs are; it’s safe to say that there aren’t gonna be a whole lot of takers for this new Emperia-powered dud.
A Few Good Links
Evidently Minnesota’s not done legislating, as it passes a new law mandating restos + deliverers must disclose all service fees. Customers cut back on fast food. The good ol’ day of all you can drink promos. Lulu diversifies shipping carriers. Toyota debuts renewable energy system for ports. Carrier SpeedX launches zone-skipping service for faster cross-country deliveries. BJ’s Wholesale sees net sales up 4%. Amazon speeds up logistics network expansion. Domino’s and Jubilant FoodWorks plan 5,500 new stores in Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Georgia, India, Sri Lanka and Turkey. Red Robin revamps loyalty program. Sea turtle stamps! Kia adds ChatGPT to new EV3. Redwood Materials and GM recycle Ultimum cells. China’s JD.com launches JD Now instant delivery.
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