Walmart decides to partner with DoorDash to provide on line delivery service

Walmart will partner with delivery service DoorDash to provide its online grocery delivery service. The service will begin in Atlanta Georgia but the company hopes it will expand throughout the United States.

How the delivery service will work

Walmart is increasing the number of delivery options including an online ordering option that it started last month. If you are in one of the delivery areas, you will be able to select the new delivery option with a time window indicating the time frame within which you want the order delivered just as happens with the existing online pickup system.

Walmart has team members assemble the articles ordered just as happens with the existing system but when done they pass the articles on to Door Dash.

The system is straightforward and makes sense for Walmart as it already has the infrastructure in place to offer delivery as well as pickup. By using DoorDash Walmart avoids the trouble and expense of building it own delivery service.

Big retailers such as Amazon and Walmart are in competition to offer more delivery services to attract customers. Walmart's other efforts include 500 more pickup towers to be installed by the end of this year as reported in a recent Digital Journal article.

DoorDash

DoorDash is an on-demand restaurant delivery service that was founded in 2013 by several Stanford University Students. DoorDash is one of several logistics companies that offer food delivery from restaurants on demand. The company launched in San Francisco but has expanded to 56 markets, and more than 600 cities across North America.

The company has raised finances of more than $700 million over several rounds. Investors include SV Angel, Khosia Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers. DoorDash was valued at $600 million in 2015. A later evaluation in November 2015 during fundraising talks with Sequoia Capital put the figure higher, at least $1 billion. In February of the following year the company was rumored to raise $110 million and was valued at around $700 million according to the Wall Street Journal. Another report claimed that $127 million had been raised. In March of this year, the company raised another $535 million in a round led by SoftBank group, with Sequoia Capital, GIC, and Wellcome Trust participating.

The appended video is a tutorial on how to use the DoorDash app. Partnering with Walmart will enable DoorDash to expand with the backing of the huge merchandiser.

Previously published in Digital Journal