Kroger Ship Adding Marketplace
The Kroger Co. will expand its Kroger Ship program to compete online this fall with the likes of Amazon and Walmart.
The grocery retailer launched its online delivery service Kroger Ship in August 2018. Now Kroger said it will offer an extended ship-to-home assortment through a marketplace offering of third-party sellers powered by Mirakl.
"Our customers are increasingly turning to our e-commerce solutions provided at Kroger.com for their grocery and household essential needs,” said Jody Kalmbach, Kroger's group vice president of product experience. “To better serve our customers, we're continuing to invest in technology that enables us to expand our digital services to deliver anything, anytime, anywhere. Leveraging Mirakl's best-in-class marketplace solution, we are broadening Kroger's ship-to-home capabilities by offering more relevant products for our customers through exciting new partnerships with reputable third-party sellers.”
Kroger Ship will offer customers an extended aisle of products made available through marketplace partners. Initially, more than 50,000 additional items will be available to customers across multiple categories, including natural and organic, international food, specialty items, housewares and toys. Kroger's marketplace products are expected to launch this fall. Eligible Kroger.com orders earn loyalty rewards like fuel points.
"The expansion of our Kroger Ship platform will continue to bring together our industry-leading customer insights and merchandising data to offer our customers a digital shopping experience that includes staples available in our physical stores as well as products that are exclusive to Kroger.com," said Stuart Aitken, Kroger's senior vice president and chief merchant and marketing officer. "As part of our continuing transformation, we look forward to accelerating the development of our e-commerce platform and providing our customers with even more choices."
Kroger's strategic investments in e-commerce technology and channels over the past two and half years under Restock Kroger have positioned the company to more effectively respond to the sustained, increased demand of delivery, pickup and ship-to-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Kroger's first quarter 2020 results, its digital sales grew 92%.