Best Buy Co. is partnering with Instacart, a nationwide grocery delivery company, to offer same-day delivery of products from nearly all its Best Buy stores.
Shoppers will be able to use Instacart.com to buy a wide range of items from Best Buy, including laptops, TVs and small appliances, Instacart said Tuesday.
Richfield-based Best Buy has offered same-day delivery for years and has utilized different partners. It has been making deliveries with its own employees in some markets and recently began working with Shipt, the delivery unit of Target Corp., for similar services.
"As people settle into remote work and distance learning routines, we've seen increased demand for the same-day delivery of electronics on our marketplace," Chris Rogers, vice president of retail at Instacart, said in a statement.
"We're proud to partner with Best Buy — the largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S. — to offer customers across the country a new way to get the technology products they need delivered same-day," he said.
San Francisco-based Instacart also announced a new "certified delivery feature" that gives customers a larger selection of "high-value items" that weren't previously available on Instacart for same-day delivery, such as top-quality noise canceling headphones.
The same-day delivery business has continued to grow in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Best Buy's last quarter was its best ever in terms of online sales with online comparable sales more than tripling to $4.9 billion.
In August, Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said store employees at 200 Best Buy locations have been making same-day deliveries to customers. She also said the electronics retailer would start a ship-from-store pilot project where about 250 stores would be hub store locations and ship out significantly more online orders than normal stores. Hub stores were chosen for their space, proximity to carrier partners and ability to support same- and next-day delivery.
"Customer shopping behavior will be permanently changed in a way that is even more digital and puts customers entirely in control to shop how they want," Barry said.
Best Buy hasn't yet released any new details on its fulfillment initiatives. The company is scheduled to report its third-quarter results next week.
Target-owned Shipt has offered same-day delivery for Best Buy since September with its Shipt Driven service where its drivers deliver products for stores but the actual shopping is done by store employees.
Nicole Norfleet • 612-673-4495
Twitter: @nicolenorfleet
