Food Delivery Drivers Need CASH Gopuff Gives Cash Now

 

At the intersection of the client, customer, and employee’s food delivery companies need to have reliable service for all and meet or exceed the expectations of all if they are to thrive according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Gopuff recently teamed with Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for business, and partners such as Visa Direct, Visa’s real-time money movement network, to give its delivery partners who have an eligible debit card the option to cash out faster. In other word’s give them their money when the want it or need it.

Renaming their own niche, quick-commerce platform Gopuff has begun providing its U.S. delivery partners with the ability to instantly cash out their earnings balance at any time with a few clicks, giving them an even more flexible, convenient and quick way to receive their earnings and tips.

Here is how it works, Gopuff has teamed with Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for business, and partners such as Visa Direct, Visa’s real-time money movement network, to give partners who have an eligible debit card the option to cash out faster.

Daniel Folkman, SVP of business at Philadelphia-based Gopuff, stated, “Now more than ever, delivery partners are looking for convenience and speed when accessing their earnings,” .. “We’re proud to partner with Stripe to offer U.S. delivery partners a new Instant Cash Out option, which enables them to access and use their earnings within minutes, rather than days. We will continue to listen to delivery partner feedback and invest into their experience delivering with Gopuff.”

James Dyett, head of strategic accounts at San Francisco-based Stripe, stated, “Platforms like Gopuff are making it more convenient for consumers to access what they need, and delivery partners to get paid quickly,” … “We’re proud to power faster access to earnings as Gopuff builds on its success with Stripe’s financial infrastructure, especially in a time when every dollar counts.”

Yes, there is more; the Instant Cash Out option is the just the latest in a series of investments that Gopuff is making to enhance the delivery partner experience. These include:

·         Better Delivery Partner Support: In the past 12 months, Gopuff more than quadrupled the size of its delivery partner support team, enabling the business to provide quick responses and solutions to delivery partners’ questions. The company also rolled out a new in-app chat feature to make it even easier for delivery partners to connect with a support agent.

·         Driver App Enhancements: This past March, Gopuff launched the Gopuff Driver app in the App Store and Google Play Store. The new app considerably streamlines the delivery experience, makes it easier and faster for new partners to access the platform, and enables automatic app updates for existing users.

·         Faster Payouts and Greater Earnings Transparency: In May, as part of its partnership with Stripe, Gopuff transitioned delivery partners to a new system that distributes earnings two-three days faster than before. Gopuff also launched a fully redesigned earnings tab in the Gopuff Driver app, making earnings information more transparent and digestible.

·         More Cash-Back Promotions: In the United States, Gopuff teamed with Upside to offer delivery partners exclusive promotions at more than 50,000 businesses, including cash-back opportunities at gas stations, restaurants and grocery stores. In the United Kingdom, Gopuff worked with Collective Benefits to offer discounted fuel options and deals to help save money on everyday expenses. 

·         Additional Perks: Gopuff recently launched such perks as vehicle maintenance discounts via Openbay, credit and discount opportunities on tax services via Block Advisors, and expense and mileage tracking via Stride. This follows a previously established partnership with Stride Health to give delivery partners and their families access to affordable, quality health insurance coverage.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideas look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how our Grocerant Guru® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit: us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Instant Commerce Destination Meal Leader Gopuff is Red Hot

 

Regular readers of this blog are familiar with GoPuff.  What Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®, likes about GoPuff is its ability to combine the food industry intellectual quotient (IQ) and consumers emotional quotient (EQ) at the point of purchase.

So, instant-needs delivery platform Gopuff has launched The Mean Tomato, an exclusive pizza-focused brand and the first expansion of the company’s freshly prepared food offering since the introduction of Gopuff Kitchen. Customers can now order a quick lunch or midnight meal from The Mean Tomato, along with thousands of other essential items, alcohol, ice cream, drinks, snacks and household cleaning products, all of them delivered in minutes. 

Dan Folkman, Gopuff’s SVP of business, stated, “As a customer-first tech company, we are the best at delivering bold and unexpected experiences that we know our customers will love,” ... “Gopuff Kitchen’s success has shown that high-quality, Gopuff-made fresh products have immense staying power with our customers. We are proud to launch The Mean Tomato, our first fresh food brand as Gopuff further establishes itself as the one-stop instant commerce destination.”

You will like the use of IQ here as Gopuff’s culinary team relied on data and insights to design the menu especially for Gopuff customers, who prefer bold and unique flavor profiles. The Mean Tomato brand offers New York City-style pizzas with unusual flavor combinations, and partnerships with trending brands, among them Truff sauces and Mike’s Hot Honey, along with creations like Chocolate and Caramel Waffles, and more to come later this year, including savory sides. Featuring such ingredients as farm-fresh tomato sauce and surprising topping combinations, the pizzas are made from scratch in under three minutes.

Growth with experience, Gopuff recently grew its Kitchen team, adding food industry leaders Amelia Riba, formerly chief brand officer at Pizza Hut, and Alan Morgan, previously culinary director at Whole Foods, to develop the new product lineup. 

Riba, stated, “This is an exciting new category for Gopuff with great potential – we’re just beginning to test the waters in terms of what we can do in the fresh, made-to-order food space with instant delivery,” …. “Gopuff Kitchen will continue to expand its menu by launching new brands, providing more opportunities for customers to enjoy new experiences with Gopuff time and time again.”

In case you had not read out earlier blogs, this year, Gopuff launched Basically, (comma included), its first curated product line, marking the company’s entrance into the private label arena. Basically, gives customers access to high-quality snacks, water and other home essentials at value prices.

Currently operating more than 600 micro-fulfillment centers, BevMo! and liquor barn stores across North America and Europe, Philadelphia-based Gopuff was founded in 2013 by co-founders and co-CEOs Rafael Ilishayev and Yakir Gola.

For international corporate presentations, regional chain presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert, and public speaking will leave success clues for all. For more information visit GrocerantGuru.com, FoodserviceSolutions.US or call 1-253-759-7869

Combine Snacks, Fresh Food, Beverages and more GoPuff Growth is Grocerant Great

 

Restaurant chains are closing stores, grocers are blaming the cost of labor for store closures, convenience stores are reshuffling their fresh food line-up to focus on daypart customers customer visit shifts; all the while Gopuff is adding more fulfillment centers garnering a larger share of stomach from all of the above.

According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® “it is at the intersection of technology, food discovery, and American’s never-ending desire for instant gratification that has help propel great growth at Gopuff.”

While Americans Consumers have a deep affection for breakfast, with three in five Americans (62 percent) saying breakfast is their favorite meal of the day and more than half (56 percent) saying they love breakfast food more now than they did a year ago. That meal is now most often consumed at home.

Thus, opening the door for Gopuff to extend its delivery daypart options for snacks, fresh food, beverages, and incremental grocerant niche related products as Gopuff knows that:

 

1.       Recent Grocerant ScoreCards found 82.3% of consumers don’t know what’s for dinner at Noon, and 61.1 don’t know what’ s for dinner at 4PM %.

2.       83.1% all dinners have at least 1 grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal component and 68.4% have two meal components.

3.       When asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 90.4 % of Gen Z chose assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 82.7% chose meal components.

4.       Seventy-three percent of retail prepared food purchases are taken to go

5.       Prepared food purchases are frequently a planned purchase among 59% of shoppers, while 41% of shoppers said they buy prepared foods on impulse. Dinner has the highest amount of prepared food buys with 79% of respondents making purchases for that meal, while lunch comes in at 77% and breakfast at 62%.

6.       55% of consumers would like to try autonomous EV delivery

Now eight years after launching, Gopuff continues to grow not only in geographical reach but in product reach as well. Recently, Gopuff co-founder and co-CEO Yakir Gola stated that Gopuff is adding 40 or 50 micro-fulfillment centers every month while entering new categories as well.

When a student at Drexel University, Gola and co-founder Rafael Ilishayev launched the startup as a way to get late-night snacks without running to a convenience store. The company began delivering those goods, along with hookahs and tobacco products.

While in school other companies entering the "instant needs" space — a term Gopuff coined — Gola said he believes Gopuff "is in a category of one." Now the company operates in more than 1,000 cities and carries more than 4,000 items, and its network includes brick-and-mortar stores, which double as warehouses. Its valuation reached $15 billion in July.  We ask, how many locations has your company opened during the last eight year?

So, in late 2020, Gopuff entered into a definitive agreement to acquire BevMo! for $350 million, and this past June it acquired Liquor Barn, a chain of beer, wine and liquor stores based in Louisville, Ky., from private equity firm Blue Equity. Regular readers of this blog know that consumers are dynamic not static and companies most be dynamic as well.  Are you looking for profitable growth?

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

Gopuff Dinner and a Drink Made-to-Order

 

Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food continues to be the undercurrent of food, beverage, and snacking success in every retail food channel today according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Gopuff’s understanding of the undercurrents driving food consumers channel migration is the best in the industry according to Johnson.

With Gopuff’s new grocerant niche ‘made-to-order’ hot and fresh food placed at retail alongside everyday essentials and beverages the ability to drive incremental top-line sales and bottom-line are on track. Gopuff's new mobile kitchen facilities are within or adjacent to its micro-fulfillment centers, enabling customers to order breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night food and drinks alongside any other essentials all in a single order for a flat fee of $1.95.

Daniel Folkman, Gopuff's senior vice president of business, stated, "With today's news, Gopuff is launching a completely new category and raising the bar on how technology is making our lives more convenient," ... "Nowhere else can you order your everyday essentials while also taking care of dinner for the family or getting a quick coffee, all from one platform. This is only possible through our unique business model that features a network of hundreds of our own micro-fulfillment centers, and now, kitchens. Today's milestone represents a new way of thinking about the Instant Needs economy and will redefine consumer expectations."

So, Gopuff uses it proprietary recipes and sources ingredients from local partners to offer a mix of healthy and indulgent menu items, including hot, freshly prepared pizza, chicken tenders, salads, fresh-brewed coffee and matcha, and breakfast sandwiches.

During, the initial pilot program, Gopuff delivered hundreds of thousands of orders across more than 20 micro-fulfillment centers, including in Austin and San Antonio, Texas; Mesa, Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe, Ariz.; Miami and Tampa, Fla.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Philadelphia. Gopuff plans to launch additional kitchens across the country by the end of this year.

Regular readers of this blog know that, Gopuff acquired Bandit, the first app-only coffee shop in the United States, launching the company's fresh food offering and jump-starting Gopuff Kitchen. Bandit was co-founded in just two years ago.

Crowley a co-found of Bandit and now Gopuff's vice president of business expansion, is now leading Gopuff's business expansion efforts, including the Gopuff Kitchen vertical. Crowley stated, "We started Bandit with a focus on improving the customer experience, understanding that consumer preferences were rapidly shifting to mobile orders, especially for fresh everyday items such as coffee... "Together with Gopuff, we are taking this mission to the next level and beyond by making it easier than ever to get everyday essentials alongside quality food and drinks all in less than thirty minutes."

Customer relevance matters and Gopuff has made a major push into local products, having launched more than 1,100 local products from more than 300 partners, including local in-market supplier partners, like La Colombe, Au Fournil and Dizengoff in Philadelphia, and Cartel Coffee in Phoenix, as well as Bandit in Austin. Some of those items are also featured in their Gopuff Kitchens.

Extending the halo of ‘better-for-you’ Gopuff Kitchen consists of a proprietary all-electric fleet and maintains "clean cooking," meaning no open flames, odors, propane gas or fryers, and no combustion in the cooking or climate control processes. Gopuff's innovative modular design also allows the kitchens to adapt menus and equipment to the preferences of the communities it serves.

How fast are you growing? If you did not know, Gopuff currently operates more than 450 sites across North America and the United Kingdom, including 285-plus micro-fulfillment centers and 185-plus recently acquired BevMo! and Liquor Barn locations.

Success does leave clues. One clue that time and time again continues to resurface is “the consumer is dynamic not static”.  Regular readers of this blog know that is the common refrain of Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Our Grocerant Guru® can help your company edify your brand with relevance.  Call 253-759-7869 for more information. 

More Products More Customers Gopuff Uber Eats Driving Delivery

 

New electricity around the Gopuff / Uber Eats partnership is creating discomfort within the rank’s legacy grocery stores, convenience stores, and dollar store retailers as they learn the details of this grocerant niche duo according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.   

This partnership is operating at the intersection of meals and convenience.  Complemented with snacks, beverages, and consumers unmet touchpoint fresh food and fun fast according to Johnson. So, this is the first partnership with a vertically integrated delivery business for Uber and the first time Gopuff has powered an essentials delivery offering for a partner.

Regular readers of this blog know that Gopuff delivers a diverse selection of everyday essentials from eggs, milk, beer, wine, meals, and snacks to soap, and toilet paper to customers in more than 650 cities from its own 250-plus micro-fulfillment centers. This partnership combines Uber’s engaged U.S. consumer base and Gopuff’s expertise in instant needs delivery, with consumer unmet need-set touchpoints for at home convenience items.

How are you driving new electricity into your brand? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new menu related products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Restaurants, Grocery Stores, C-Stores

Battle for Share of Stomach 

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, music, developing brands, unique urban hemp clothing, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  It looks to the team at Foodservice Solutions® this does all that.

A new in-app collaboration is planned to launch in more than 95 cities this June with national expansion to follow later in the summer. It will make use of Gopuff’s hyper-local logistics and driver network to reach Uber customers across the country.

This news follows months of expansion for the Uber Eats app into grocery, convenience, alcohol and additional verticals to meet the evolving expectations of American consumers — including the announced acquisitions of Postmates, Drizly and Cornershop. Residents in more than 100 cities and towns in 20 major U.S. metros can now have groceries delivered — whether scheduled or on-demand — via the Uber and Uber Eats apps.

Get this, Gopuff, which acquired BevMo! late last year, has rapidly expanded its product offerings and geographic footprint, growing its number of micro-fulfillment centers nearly 80% last year. With a focus on supporting local businesses, Gopuff has partnered with more than 100 local brands, adding 500 local products nationwide with more coming onto the platform each week.

Now Uber users will see nearly every Gopuff category on Uber Eats — all with the benefits of membership: Uber Pass and Eats Pass members will enjoy $0 Delivery on all Gopuff orders over $15. That won’t be hard to do if you order some beer, wine, or liquor from BevMo!

Raj Beri, Uber’s head of grocery and new verticals delivery, stated, “One thing we know to be true is that people have come to expect more delivered to their doorsteps than ever before — we’ve seen searches for grocery and convenience items grow by 40% since the start of the year,”  “With this partnership, we are able to leapfrog the competition in using Gopuff’s network of micro-fulfillment centers to instantly meet consumer demand for thousands of products — and I’m incredibly excited about the opportunities ahead.”

Daniel Folkman, Gopuff SVP of business, stated, “As we continue to innovate and lead the instant needs space, we’re excited to power Uber’s new essentials offering, leveraging our logistics, tech and inventory expertise to bring a first of its kind experience to customers,”  “Everything we do at Gopuff is for our customers, and this partnership brings Gopuff’s unique assortment, affordable prices and fast delivery to even more people nationwide.”

What are you selling, to whom, and where? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

GoPuff Leverages Mix & Match Bundling’s Joins Me to We Movement

Convenience stores have a product mix advantage over restaurants and the ability to look a customer ahead daypart by daypart.  The ability to mix and match a wider variety of products into a customize bundle; for example, a gallon of milk, dozen eggs, Ready-2-Eat Pizza or Heat-N-Eat pot roast dinner is a platform that allows for both pricing flexibility and increased customer satisfaction according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA base Foodservice Solutions®.  

Success does leave clues and industry leading companies understand that there is an increased unmet need that consumers are expressing when it comes to their everyday life and food, meals, and beverages. That is food and food packaging that has the ‘halo’ of better for you and a hallmark of the Grocerant niche.  

Convenience stores operators know that our Grocerant Guru® has been highlighting restaurants companies that are focused on elevating next year, 2021 in food, as the year the industry focuses on From Me to We” movement in food aka sustainability. That is expanding the ‘halo’ of ‘better for you’ food and food packaging offerings within every sector of retail food.

Around the world consumers are expressing greater sense of urgency around climate change, droughts, wildfires, and increase in intense tropical storms. According to The NPD Group, consumers reported in July that 63% of their eating occasions during the COVID-19 outbreak have been atypical, meaning they’re eating and sourcing foods and beverages outside of their normal routines. That disruption has elevated consumers focus or ‘better for you’ sustainable food and beverage options.

Now GoPuff is set  to join the from Me too We movement’, by making consumers' immediate everyday needs for better-for-you products more accessible with the launch of its Better For You product category.

Now get this available for delivery within 30 minutes, goPuff's Better For You product category features hundreds of healthier food, snack and vitamin options, as well as less- and non-toxic home, bath and body products.

Among the products offered are:

·         Seventh Generation Recycled Bath Tissue;

·         Halo Top Peanut Butter Cup Pint;

·         Healthy Choice Korean Beef Frozen Power Bowl;

·         Annie's Macaroni & Cheese Shells & White Cheddar;

·         Hello Whitening Toothpaste;

·         Simply Cheetos Crunchy White Cheddar Jalapeno;

·         Bolt24 hydrating beverages and more.

Grocerant niche mix and match product bundling are a key hallmark of the grocerant niche that expands customer visit frequency, satisfaction and ticket average.  GoPuff is looking a customer ahead are you?

Foodservice Solutions® team is here to help you drive top line sales and bottom-line profits. Are you looking a customer ahead? Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel your continued success.