Kroger is expanding its delivery reach with Instacart

Instacart is expanding its delivery reach with help from Kroger.

The national grocery store giant announced it is launching a new delivery service known as Kroger Delivery Now, which aims to ship items to customers doorsteps in as little as 30 minutes nationwide, a company press release claims.

Instacart, which has been a strategic partner of The Kroger Co. since 2017, is being used to serve to help the grocery chain deliver fresh food and household items from late in the morning to early at night (except in a bakery chain) Orders will be delivered by the Kroger family of stores and give customers access to more than 25,000 items.

Kroger Delivery Now is a differentiated solution in the grocery-e-commerce industry, not just in the e-commerce sector, said Rodney McMullen, Chairman and CEO of Kroger, in a statement. Our new service helps customers with one more way to shop with us and addresses the importance of convenience and immediacy. He went on, Operationsally, this service reaches up to 50 million households and it's an expansion of our strategic interplay among our assets, unrivaled store network, supply chain, and operational fulfillment centers and fleet, joined by Instacart's unrivaled fulfillment model and last mile technology to provide our customers with anything, anytime, anywhere. Prior to Kroger Delivery Now the Kroger Family of Stores and Instacart announced two-hour delivery.

In recent years, the grocery chain has also boosted investment in advanced tracking technology, including its use of automated distribution centers, drone tests and ghost kitchen dispatch.

Kroger and Instacart's speedy delivery initiative competes directly with express delivery services offered by other retail giants like Walmart and Amazon, which generally promise to deliver goods within two hours or less.

Kroger says McMullen made more than $10 billion in e-commerce sales in 2020 and hopes to double its digital sales and profitability rate by the end of 2023. Kroger Family of Stores is a parent company for 16 regional grocery store chains, including its namesake Kroger, Ralphs, City Market, Food 4 Less and Harris Teeter.

Instacart announces that it will launch a similar delivery model with a newly added Convenience Hub outside of Kroger Delivery Now. The Hub will reportedly allow customers to buy grocery or household items 24 7 and Instacart Express members will be provided a free Priority Delivery option, so deliveries can be made in 30 minutes or less.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, grocery delivery services have exploded with demand.

A market research report conducted by Grand View Research, a business consulting firm predicts the online grocery market to grow to $1.1 trillion by 2027.

The report of the firm states that a rising number of smartphones, their use, and a prominent number of smartphone users are anticipated to boost the market growth over the forecast period. Along with these factors the recently released coronavirus pandemic is another major contributor to the rising number of online grocery shoppers across the globe.