This Could Be Why Walmart Groceries Will No Longer Be Delivered By DoorDash
When Walmart enters an evolving market, it goes big. As America's second-largest overall retailer in 2022, per Forbes, the Arkansas-based conglomerate jumped on the grocery-delivery wagon four years ago with a DoorDash partnership to deliver same-day groceries and other items directly to customers. Now that program is coming to end, according to Business Insider. But that doesn't mean either company is exiting the grocery delivery market — far from it.
After the 2018 DoorDash/Walmart test-pilot launch in Metro Atlanta, it quickly spread to multiple states. By summer 2021, FreightWaves reported that Walmart led online grocery delivery sales by 48% compared to Instacart at 45%. The stats are unsurprising considering Walmart's reign as America's largest grocery chain. In specific regions, its grocery deliveries claimed even higher percentages, including 61% in Metro Dallas-Fort Worth, per Bloomberg Second Measure.
DoorDash likewise continues to thrive from its home base in San Francisco, with Supermarket News reporting the delivery company's 94% household reach across the United States. Though ending its partnership with Walmart, cemented by a 30-day notice for exit in September 2022, DoorDash will continue its delivery collaborations with significant grocery chains such as Albertson's, Safeway, Hy-Vee, and Meijer.
Determining why Walmart groceries will no longer be delivered by DoorDash is a multi-faceted endeavor, which ultimately comes down to independence and new in-house platforms.
Separate platforms thrive
Initial reporting by Business Insider cited reasons for the DoorDash/Walmart split being a decline in mutually beneficial results and a desire by DoorDash to focus on its long-term customer partnerships. Emerging details widened the scope, including statements from both companies revealing a more substantial reason: The establishment and growth of separate in-house platforms, per Winsight Grocery Business.
A statement by DoorDash noted plans to strengthen and build merchant support through the company's Marketplace and Platform systems. Specifically, Business Insider makes note of the DoorDash Drive platform, a business-to-business service that allows customers to place orders directly on individual business websites and apps for delivery by DoorDash drivers. That platform, along with the Storefront product, showed year-over-year increases of 70% in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Walmart is laser-focused on its own in-house platforms, including the Spark platform through which independent drivers deliver Walmart orders to customers. Spark now comprises 75% of Walmart deliveries while servicing 84% of households in America. It has been serviced by Delivery Drivers — which will now be acquired by Walmart, per company confirmation to Business Insider.
Another Walmart statement reported by Winsight Grocery Business noted that drivers prefer to avoid working through two separate companies for deliveries, leading Walmart toward simplification and streamlined driver support under its own umbrella.