The pandemic forced C-stores to innovate. One solution was to offer customers more opportunities to order online for pickup and home delivery through Uber Eats and Door Dash. Many states loosened restrictions on the delivery of alcoholic beverages. This allowed local convenience stores to be even more convenient and helped drive revenue.
Fast-forward to today, and many stores continue to work on growing revenue through online orders.
Vroom Delivery was established in 2015, in seemingly perfect timing to be essential during the pandemic. The company lets customers order alcoholic beverages and groceries from stores and restaurants by going online or by using its app. Customers can search by location for particular items or to see what is available.
Longtime customers Wesco, Hutchinson Oil dba Hutch’s, and FavTrip became investors in the platform at the end of last year. Vroom is now on offer at more than 3,000 stores in nearly 40 states.
Wesco initially joined the platform in 2018, using it to offer hot food for in-store pickup. Their positive experience led them to invest.
“Year over year we continue to see sales grow. We have been able to establish that a customer who is ordering for home delivery generates a basket size almost three times [the] ring as a customer who visits our store directly,” said Nancy Westgate-Systema, co-president of Wesco.
“But even beyond the increases in sales, we have gained other benefits that maybe we didn’t initially anticipate,” she continued. “This feedback from one of our customer survey comments about their Vroom order says it best: ‘Always great service, and the customer service is always positive… . Very helpful for people that have health issues and cannot get out or are able to have someone do errands for them.’ These types of replies cause a real pause for us for a moment, as we knew doing something like this would help our customers, but we hadn’t realized just how much.” 1.
In a new deal with Uber, Vroom will integrate with Uber Direct, their premium fulfillment service, to offer customers enhanced delivery options.
“According to Vroom, the partnership can also benefit stores on the Uber Eats app, which can now use Vroom Delivery’s menu management services to create online menus with thousands of products and automated inventories. This could lead to larger average basket sizes and fewer out-of-stock items listed online, according to the company.”
“We are so thrilled to be partnering with Uber to help convenience retailers grow their online sales,” said John Nelson, CEO of Vroom Delivery. “Our unique integrations and automation in the industry combined with Uber’s network of independent drivers and the Uber Eats Marketplace will both lower costs, improve efficiency and increase the range of items consumers can get delivered. We can’t wait to see the results.” 2.
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