Because some retailers find that suburban and rural customers often prefer overnight delivery service while urban customers find same-day delivery more efficient, 17 retailers have expanded delivery options to include Google Express overnight deliveries to consumers who live outside big-city limits throughout the Midwest, Google Express officials say.
Google Express, which began in 2013 as Google Shopping Express, lets consumers shop the Google Express site for products from participating local retailers. Google then gets those products from a participating retail store and a courier delivers the order to the consumer.
Eran Cohen, executive vice president of customer experience for Petsmart Inc., says the pet-care and supplies retailer offers overnight and same-day delivery from its Petsmart store on the Google Express website and mobile app so customers can get what they need when and how they need it.
Petsmart this week expanded overnight delivery options to customers within a 120-mile radius of Chicago, including portions of Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan, Cohen says. PetSmart started offering customers same-day delivery via Google Express nearly a year ago in metro areas of San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Alexandra Haake Kamberos, director of brand development for Treasure Island Foods, a Chicago supermarket chain that operates seven stores within the Chicago metropolitan area, considers overnight delivery as a way to boost sales and better compete against bigger rivals. The retailer can now sell products to consumers who don’t live within walking or driving distance from a Treasure Island Foods store or who are unable to travel, Haake Kamberos says. Treasure Island Foods last year rolled out Google Express same-day delivery in Chicago.
“Being a family-owned and operated grocery business for over 50 years, the partnership with Google Express allows us to compete on a more even playing field with other companies in our industry,” she says.
Outdoor retailer Moosejaw is offering the same-day service to gauge its shoppers’ level of interest and willingness to pay for the speediest option, says Dan Pingree, vice president of marketing.
Pingree describes e-commerce shoppers’ desire for quick delivery “the Amazon conditioning effect.”
“As Amazon ups its game by, for example, offering Amazon Prime where millions of customers now get free two-day shipping, those same customers come to expect fast, free shipping from everybody else,” Pingree says. ”It forces us all to step up our game. Amazon, of course, also is running same-day delivery tests, and all this combined raises the level of expectation from the consumer. We all have to respond to this.”
Google Express lists on a blog post 17 retailers involved in the Midwestern overnight delivery rollout, including Costco (No. 11 on the Internet Retailer 2015 Top 500 Guide), Kohl’s (No. 22), Walgreen’s (No. 44), Ace Hardware (No. 630 in the Second 500), Staples (No. 4), Toys ‘R’ Us (No. 40) and Babies R Us.
Shoppers can join the service and receive three free months of membership, after which Google Express costs $95 per year or $10 per month. Shoppers also may pay as they go, at $4.99 per eligible order. New Google Express members receive free same-day or overnight delivery on eligible orders over $15 and hared membership with a household member.
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