🍿 A Deep-dive into goPuff's Strategy to Conquer the Grocery Market

Amazon’s approach to logistics is a masterclass in balancing vertical integration vs openness.

As online-first brands begin saturating the online market, the next phase to unlocking growth will be entering grocery stores. To get into nationwide grocery chains, it’s important to build a compelling sales story based on ‘online data’ to convince buyers that the product would sell.

The strategy is largely out of the same playbook as other on-demand apps—capture customers, consolidate control over a high-frequency behavior, expand and cross-sell to other higher-margin categories. But their challenges are significant as well, from spoilage rates on grocery to hard-to-predict inventory requirements and building relationships wit... See more

We look at apps like DoorDash and see food delivery. Rather, view them as the last-mile enabler for businesses who are leaning into localized eCommerce. Food delivery, alone, will not justify the $50+ billion market cap but a city-by-city network of local retailers may.

Such speed and convenience is difficult to achieve when your business model is at the mercy of third party merchants fulfilling your orders. These companies must therefore be vertically integrated with a high degree of control over their Dark Stores and courier networks.