OPINION: Convenience is king – and so is delivery

Next day delivery? One hour delivery? Dash buttons allowing you to order specific products? The ability to order entire meals from your favourite restaurant?

Forget it. There’s a new kid in town. A new American company called GoPuff is promising delivery within 30 minutes. For only $1.95, they will deliver whatever you want, from a shopping list of 3,000 items, including snacks, soft drinks and beer, if you happen to live in big cities including Chicago, Austin, Denver and Washington.

The first line of GoPuff’s own blurb on the app store backs up the core principle: “In today’s world, convenience is king”, it says. The selection they promise to deliver is “three times” the selection of the average corner store

GoPuff is (right down to the name) clearly aimed at a specific demographic. An article in a Chicago online magazine talks about the most popular items in the first month and a half of its operation in the city this summer – “Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, bottled water, Nerds Rope, and condoms”. It’s clear who’s using this service. And it’s a proportion of the population that has a decent disposable income.

The first line of GoPuff’s own blurb on the app store backs up the core principle: “In today’s world, convenience is king”, it says. The selection they promise to deliver is “three times” the selection of the average corner store.

The first thought I had when I spotted the poster for GoPuff was of a kebab shop I once stumbled in to in Edinburgh.

As we paid for our kebabs and wandered out, I noticed that my friend was carrying a loaf of bread and some toilet roll.

That store owner knows that he’s the last stop of the night, he knows that the stores around him are closed, and he knows that by stocking 10 or so choice items he can get some real impulse purchases from those customers forward-thinking enough to not want to leave the house at 8am the next day. Brilliant.

GoPuff is talking about smaller warehouses and being able to deliver a slimmed-down selection within 15 minutes. For those in areas with big student populations, or in big cities, the opportunity is obvious.

And for retailers, the app is also obvious. Convenience is king and so is delivery.