Amazon is facing a new competitor in Jacksonville’s online retail space.
Target and Shipt are launching a same-day delivery service in 14 Florida areas with Jacksonville and St. Augustine scheduled to come online on February 8.
“The addition of Target stores to Shipt’s online marketplace across Florida allows us to deliver on our promise to offer quality products at great prices by making Target’s wide assortment available to our dedicated members,” said Bill Smith, founder and CEO of Shipt in a news release.
Target announced in December it was buying Shipt for $550 million in cash. Target said on its corporate website that Shipt will continue to run its business independently and plans to expand partnerships with other retailers.
Target and Shipt are starting with same-day delivery of what's being described as “groceries, essentials, home, electronics and other products from Target.”
The orders will be able to be delivered in as little as one hour if requested.
Shipt, which was founded in 2014, started as a membership-based grocery marketplace and same-day delivery platform. One of its early delivery partners was Publix.
Target and Shipt appear to be pursuing a similar model to Amazon Prime, which offers one- and two-day shipping in many parts of the country - including Jacksonville - for $99 per year.
For the launch of same-day delivery in Jacksonville and St. Augustine, Shipt is running a promotional annual membership for $49, which is regularly $99, according to a joint news release from Target and Shipt.
Target and Shipt will also be rolling out the service in 12 other areas of Florida in February:
- Daytona Beach
- Fort Myers
- Gainesville
- Gulf Shores
- Naples
- Sarasota
- Orlando
- Space Coast
- South Florida
- Tampa
- Tallahassee
- Treasure Coast
In Jacksonville, Instacart.com is another delivery service competitor to Shipt. Instacart offers home delivery from businesses that include Publix, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits and Whole Foods.
Whole Foods, which operates a Jacksonville store on San Jose Boulevard, was bought by Amazon last year.
While home delivery at Whole Foods by Amazon hasn’t been announced yet, Amazon does say that, “In the future, after certain technical integration work is complete, Amazon Prime will become Whole Foods Market’s customer rewards program, providing Prime members with special savings and other in-store benefits. This is just the beginning—Amazon and Whole Foods Market plan to offer more in-store benefits and lower prices for customers over time as the two companies integrate logistics and point-of-sale and merchandising systems.”
Leading up to the expansion, Shipt plans to hire more than 3,000 shoppers throughout Florida. Anyone interested can apply on this Shipt webpage.
Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org, 904-358-6349 or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.
Photo used under Creative Commons license.
