Just three weeks after launching a same-day delivery pilot, Kohl’s Corp. is planning on tripling the number of markets where it offer the service.
Kohl’s, No. 22 in the 2015 Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, plans to roll out same-day delivery in an additional six markets over the next couple of weeks: Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, and the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. Kohl’s initially began testing same day delivery as part of a partnership with Deliv late last month in Chicago, San Francisco, and the San Francisco Bay area.
“Kohl’s is committed to providing our customers with an easy, convenient shopping experience in a way that is personalized and engaging—no matter how each customer prefers to shop,” Kohl’s CEO Kevin Mansell said when the partnership was initially announced.
A Kohl’s spokeswoman declined comment on how successful the offering has been so far or future expansion plans for the service.
The retailer charges shoppers $14.95 for same-day delivery of online orders of up to $74.99, promising any order placed by 1 p.m. will be delivered by 8 pm. For orders of $75 and over, Kohl’s charges a $9.95 fee for same-day delivery.
Deliv CEO and founder Daphne Carmeli says retailers who work with her company pay a delivery fee that is determined by how far drivers have to go to deliver a package. She says they will travel up to 15 mile from the store that fulfills the order. She wouldn’t discuss the fee range. Each retailer sets its own price for the same-day service.
She says Kohl’s is taking advantage of capabilities the retailer has built in order to better serve cross-channel shoppers. “They have inventory visibility at a SKU level at a store level,” she says.
Kohl’s isn’t the only Top 500 retailer working with Deliv, a 3-year-old company, to deliver online orders the same day they’re placed.
In August, Macy’s Inc. announced it was expanding same-day delivery to nine additional markets, charging shoppers an additional $5 on top of standard ground shipping rates. Macy’s, No. 7 in the 2015 Top 500, now offers same-day shipping in 17 markets. Other Top 500 retailers using Deliv include athletic apparel chain Foot Locker Inc. (No. 54) and online florist 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. (No. 56), with other retailer clients to be announced in the near future, Carmeli says.
Carmeli says retailers are feeling the heat from Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon’s Prime Now service. Amazon offers subscribers to its Amazon Prime loyalty program delivery of online orders in as little as an hour in select markets. Amazon charges $7.99 per order for one-hour delivery. The online retail giant, No. 1 in the 2015 Top 500, just announced it’s going to be hiring part-time delivery drivers in 10 markets as part of a push to expand its same-day delivery capabilities as part of a program called Amazon Flex.
“Amazon from a market driver point of view has really put down the gauntlet and set the expectation in the market that same day is the new standard,” Carmeli says.
According to CrunchBase, Deliv has raised $12.35 million over four rounds of funding since launching in 2012.
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