GoPuff operates an instant commerce delivery platform for foods and beverages. The company also provides an application that allows customers to choose from products such as alcohol delivery service, over-the-counter medications, groceries, snacks, drinks, and more.
The on-demand grocery delivery market caters to the busy lifestyles of modern consumers looking to purchase groceries without leaving their homes. Platforms in this market offer convenience and prompt services, delivering everything customers need within a short timeframe. They bring local sellers online, provide a larger choice of products at competitive prices, and offer discounts that are exclusive to online shopping.
Overall, on-demand grocery delivery platforms like GoPuff offer a convenient solution for those who want to avoid the hassle of traditional grocery shopping.
Overview of GoPuff
GoPuff is a quick commerce company that provides speedy delivery of convenience items such as snacks, beverages, and alcohol to customers in just 30 minutes on average. It cuts intermediaries and orders products directly from brands to resell to the end customers at a premium. Its owned and operated warehouses are optimized for delivery.
Over the years, the company has expanded its offerings by acquiring seven businesses. This allows them to diversify its product lines, such as GoPuff Kitchen, which it can cross-sell to its customers. Moreover, the company’s growth has extended beyond the United States, reaching international markets.
With micro-fulfillment centers in every market it serves, the company delivers thousands of products quickly for a flat delivery charge. GoPuff is open 24/7 in many markets and late-night everywhere else to bring customers what they need, when they need it most.
How Does GoPuff Work?
GoPuff operates on an inventory-based business model. It purchases products directly from different manufacturers and stores them in its warehouses. The company has hundreds of micro-fulfillment centers and a large network of delivery partners across different locations to fulfill an order in 15-20 minutes.
Below is a quick overview of how GoPuff works:
- Select Order: To get started, users need to sign up, either via the company’s website or by simply downloading the GoPuff app. It is available on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store. After specifying their delivery locations, the user is directed to inventory and can browse thousands of products available from their local GoPuff warehouse and add items they want to purchase to their cart.
- Payment: GoPuff accepts various credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover) and debit cards. Also, it facilitates placing orders online via Apple Pay and Google Pay.
- Delivery: Once placing the order, GoPuff’s driver-partner picks up the ordered items from the company’s local facility and delivers them to the customer within minutes.
GoPuff Products
Marketplace
Shoppers can order from GoPuff through its website or mobile app. After entering their delivery location, the customer is directed to the inventory and selection available from their local GoPuff warehouse. The company stores 4K products in each GoPuff location. After making their selections, customers can then add items to their cart and pay online, similar to other digital order platforms.
Once an order is placed, warehouse workers are notified, pick the items from the warehouse shelves, and bag them. Bags are then held in bins specific to each driver, often grouping multiple deliveries to locations in close proximity when possible. Drivers then collect the bags from their bins and head out to complete the deliveries.
Shoppers are notified of each step in the delivery via text and then called by the driver upon arrival. Since their vertically integrated delivery model cuts out the middleman, GoPuff is able to deliver orders to customers as soon as they are received, usually taking under 30 minutes.
GoPuff is open 24/7 in most locations and currently operates in over 1K cities. The company’s value proposition revolves around convenience and speed. It offers customers the opportunity to avoid driving or leaving their location to purchase desired items and receive those items within 30 minutes.
GoPuff Kitchens
GoPuff launched GoPuff Kitchens in July 2021. It is an all-electric mobile kitchen stationed within or adjacent to their micro-fulfillment centers to make and deliver freshly made foods. The Gopuff Kitchen menu includes pizzas, coffee, breakfast sandwiches, hot chicken tenders, salads, and more.
GoPuff Ads
GoPuff Ads allows brands and media agencies to roll out ad campaigns on GoPuff’s platform, turning engagements into transactions. The platform says its ads product allows brands to plan, buy, measure, and manage their ads on GoPuff to drive ROI.
GoPuff’s Market
Market Size
The quick commerce industry, or delivery services that deliver goods to consumers in 30 minutes or less, was valued at around $25 billion in 2021 and was expected to grow to $72 billion by 2025. The necessity of at-home shopping during the pandemic drove consumers to embrace the convenience of ordering convenience items online with rapid delivery.
However, companies in this space must also contend with headwinds like the rising cost of delivery, traditional retailers embracing fast delivery, post-pandemic slowdown of online commerce, consumers going back to stores, tightening funding climate, higher expectations for profitability, and more.
Customer
GoPuff initially targeted college students and young adults for its earliest customer base because it was the cohort most likely to be looking for a simple way to get convenience items with potentially limited access to transportation or a vehicle. In 2017, millennials accounted for 51% of convenience store customers in the industry overall (when that generation was between 17-35 years old), indicating that young adults make up the biggest customer segment for convenience shopping.
Having expanded significantly since achieving early traction with young customers, GoPuff now broadly serves people looking for easier access to convenience items. Either because they don’t have a car, are living in an urbanized area with impediments like traffic, or are otherwise inclined to prefer delivery.
GoPuff’s Business Model
GoPuff generates revenue through multiple channels: delivery, markup, subscriptions, and advertising.
Delivery
GoPuff applies a $1.95 delivery fee (waived for orders over $49) and a $2 fee for orders that include alcohol. These fees are intended to cover delivery costs and do not contribute to GoPuff’s profit.
The delivery fee is waived for orders above $49. However, at that point, GoPuff yields enough profit from the margins which substitutes for the delivery fee.
Markup
GoPuff purchases, stores, and sells its products directly to the customers. This is unlike its many competitors which deliver items from other restaurants and supermarkets
Thus, the company makes money whenever an order is placed. The difference between the sales price and all related costs (such as buying and storing the item) is the actual profit GoPuff earns.
The company applies a markup to the products it procures and delivers to customers, which generates a contribution margin. This approach differs from the take-rate model used by marketplaces like Uber, which charges a 30% commission on the total order value.
Advertising
Another significant revenue source for the company is GoPuff ads. The company sells preferential product placements to brands that are interested in the promotion of their products on GoPuff’s platform.
Brands like Mars Wrigley, PepsiCo, Unilever and Kraft Heinz have taken advantage of GoPuff Ad Solutions. They have witnessed remarkable repeatable outcomes with managed campaigns.
GoPuff Ads operates on a cost-per-click advertising model, which implies advertisers get charged when a customer clicks on their ad.
Subscriptions
Another way GoPuff makes money is through a subscription program called GoPuff FAM available to its customers. This program unlocks invaluable benefits such as no delivery fee and other discounts at $5.95 per month.
GoPuff incurs expenses when building new micro fulfillment Centers (MFCs) to expand its user base and reach new markets. Additionally, it has pursued growth through acquisitions.
Since November 2020, the company has acquired seven firms:
- BevMo (for alcohol delivery) for $350 million
- Bandit (an app-only coffee store)
- Fancy (for international expansion)
- RideOS for $115 million (for marketplace mapping services)
- Liquor Barn (for liquor licenses)
- Dija (for groceries), and
- Specless (for advertising).
On a per-order basis, the company spends money on inventory that it marks up to the customer, MFC employees to pack orders, and delivery partners to deliver orders to customers. As of August 2022, GoPuff generates $4 in contribution profit per order.
GoPuff Alternatives and Competitors
Direct competitors include vertically integrated companies, such as JOKR, Getir, and Doordash. In contrast, indirect competition comes from third-party delivery platforms like Uber Eats, and Instacart that don’t explicitly focus on convenience store quick delivery.
Adjacent competition comes from e-commerce players like Amazon and smaller fragmented players.
JOKR
Founded in 2021 by Ralf Wenzel and based in New York, JOKR is an online supermarket that delivers groceries in 15 minutes or less with no order minimums. The company has a net promoter score above 80 as of February 2023 and offers approximately 1.5K SKUs. In February 2023, the company raised $50 million in Series C at a post-money valuation of $1.3 billion. The round was led by G Squared and included Tiger Global, GGV Capital, and HV Capital.
To date, JOKR has raised $480 million in debt and equity. Despite losing $10 million a month as of September 2022, JOKR has adjusted by discontinuing unprofitable markets, such as New York and Boston. It is focusing on the Brazilian market, which accounts for 50% of the company’s business and expects to reach profitability in 2024.
Instacart
DoorDash is a food delivery marketplace founded in 2013 by Tony Xu and Stanley Tang. Initially, it competed with companies like Uber Eats and Grubhub. However, the company has since expanded by building additional services.
DoorDash launched DashMart in 2020, directly competing with GoPuff. DashMart is a convenience store that delivers customers convenience, grocery, and restaurant items. DashMart carries over 2K SKUs as of February 2023 and is available in 14 major cities in the United States. The company also has partnerships with convenience stores such as 7-Eleven, Wawa, Walgreens, and CVS.
Uber
Uber has expanded its services beyond ride-sharing to include Uber Eats, an online food delivery marketplace launched in 2015. The platform allows customers to browse local restaurants and have meals delivered to their doorstep. In contrast to GoPuff, Uber Eats operates a marketplace for local restaurants and does not manage its own MFCs, resulting in delivery times between 30 to 60 minutes.
While initially focused on meal delivery, the platform has expanded to include grocery, convenience items, and alcohol through acquisitions such as Drizzly and Postmates. Through the Uber One subscription that costs $9.99 a month, Uber is able to bundle Uber Eats and ride services to offer $0 delivery fees.
Although GoPuff and Uber have an exclusive partnership for GoPuff to power an everyday essentials experience on Uber Eats. Uber Eats has also partnered directly with convenience stores such as BP.
Getir
Getir is a Turkish startup that offers customers fast delivery of groceries and convenience items within 10 minutes. The company, founded in 2015 by Nazim Salur and Serkan Borancili, has expanded to multiple international markets, including the United States. It made its U.S. debut in 2021, starting with Chicago, and subsequently expanded to New York and Boston.
Like GoPuff, the company has MFCs or “dark stores” where it procures its products and manages the entire value chain from warehouse to driver. Getir offers over 1.5K SKUs for customers and has 40 million app downloads. It has also managed 1.1K dark stores as of March 2022.
In December 2022, Getir acquired Gorillas, a GoPuff competitor, to consolidate the market. The combined entity was valued at $10 billion as of December 2022.
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