With Amazon fiercely chomping up the ecommerce market one impulsive shopper at a time, Walmart is no longer the only competitor proving they have the resources to close the gap.
Yesterday Target covered some major ground after they announced their acquisition of the same-day delivery startup, Shipt, for $550m.
Specializing in the same-day grocery delivery market, the two-year-old company has raised more than $60m from investors including Greycroft Partners, e.ventures, and seed investor Harbert Venture Partners.
Shipt will reportedly work as a subsidiary of Target but will operate its business independently — meaning they can still keep some of their old big-fish clientele, like Costco.
The company has a network of more than 20k shoppers delivering in more than 72 markets around the US, and Target believes the acquisition will “significantly accelerate [their] digital fulfillment efforts.”
Target plans to get same-day services up and running with Shipt in at least half of its stores by early 2018 and have full delivery of all products by the end of 2019.