Grubhub teams up with Buyk for ultrafast delivery
A leading same-day delivery platform will fulfill orders in 15 minutes or less through a new partnership.
Grubhub is collaborating with Buyk to bring ultrafast grocery delivery to the Grubhub marketplace through Buyk- and Grubhub-branded concepts. The fulfillment and delivery of orders will be handled by Buyk, and customers will be able to order from more than 30 initial participating locations in New York City and Chicago in the coming weeks.
More than 2,000 grocery and convenience items from local and national vendors, as well as Buyk's own private label products, will be available for purchase and delivery from the Grubhub marketplace in 15 minutes or less.
Grubhub's partnership with Buyk builds on the company's ongoing efforts in the convenience delivery space, including its recently announced Grubhub Goods locations available for on-demand delivery nationwide. Offered in partnership with 7-Eleven, Grubhub Goods features a selection of 7-Eleven's most popular convenience items, including energy drinks, ice cream, and personal care products, delivered by Grubhub drivers. This expansion to thousands of Grubhub Goods locations in collaboration with 7-Eleven builds on Grubhub's existing owned Grubhub Goods location in Brooklyn, N.Y., where the inventory and delivery is managed by Grubhub.
Launched in September 2021, New York-based Buyk relies on dark stores for fulfillment. Each dark store is stocked with 2,000-3,000 SKUs, to deliver groceries and other essentials to customers’ doors in 15 min or faster. Dark stores are strategically located to enable maximum coverage in the quickest possible time and are fitted with Buyk’s proprietary technology to optimize the speed of order picking and delivery.
Buyk’s technology also provides its personnel with detailed information on a hyperlocal level, to ensure each dark store is stocked according to the specific needs and desires of consumers in that particular area.
On-demand delivery is starting to be measured in minutes, rather than hours. While ultrafast delivery services that fulfill orders in less than 15 minutes are nothing new, until 2021 they had mostly been offered on a highly localized basis by smaller platforms. The emergence of startups like Buyk, and the entry of established online delivery platforms like Grubhub and Instacart into the space, mark the continuing evolution of ultrafast delivery as a mainstream service.
[Read more: Ultrafast delivery is gaining momentum]
"We're excited to work with Buyk and together deliver everyday essentials and grocery items even faster to our diners," said Kyle Goings, director of growth and new verticals at Grubhub. "This partnership will make the Grubhub marketplace a one-stop shop for restaurants, convenience items and grocery supplies, building more diner loyalty and helping drive even more orders to all of our restaurant and merchant partners. We're thrilled to add Buyk to expand the number of options and delivery speed available to our diners."
"We're thrilled to partner with Grubhub to bring real-time retail to an even broader base of consumers," said Buyk CEO James Walker. "This strategic partnership goes far beyond grocery delivery, as Buyk and Grubhub will also cooperate in the areas of hyper-localized assortment and product management, food waste optimization, as well as smart routing and safety protocols to build the best experience for our couriers and our customers."