Target pilots on-demand grocery delivery service with Instacart

Target has announced that it is running an on-demand grocery delivery pilot service in Minneapolis in partnership with Instacart. In a statement issued today (15 September), Target said: “Minneapolis-area residents can now buy groceries online from Target — and receive their orders at home in as little as an hour.”

Target added: “In addition to groceries, the collaboration will allow guests to purchase select Target household, health and beauty, pet and baby products such as diapers and formula.

“The partnership is another example of Target’s increasing efforts to quickly deliver goods to guests. It comes on the heels of Target offering store pickup for online orders and expanding the ‘ship-from-store’ program where stores fulfill and ship online orders, typically in two to three days.”

The service will initially only be available in “select Minneapolis neighborhoods and some western suburbs” but Target said that the two companies are “exploring plans to expand into additional areas and markets”.

Instacart’s Founder & CEO Apoorva Mehta also posted an announcement about the new partnership with Target on his company’s blog today – but there was a subtle difference from the Target script.

Mehta said the company was “very excited” about the Target tie-up – but he also made it clear that Target was just one of a number of retailer partners that Instacart will be working with in “the Twin Cities” (aka Minneapolis and St Paul).

Mehta enthused: “Also beginning today, in addition to Target, customers throughout the Twin Cities can order from Whole Foods Market, Costco (no membership needed), Cub Foods, Wedge Community Co-op, Lakewinds Food Co-op, United Noodles and Petco stores and have everything delivered by Instacart. It’s clear that more and more retailers see us as their e-commerce solution for on-demand delivery. ”