Dive Brief:
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7-Eleven announced Wednesday that it has teamed up with Postmates, DoorDash and Favor Delivery, which is available to its Texas customers, to offer expanded delivery services. With these new options, the convenience store chain and its delivery companies now offer on-demand ordering from more than 90% of participating U.S. 7-Eleven locations, the company noted.
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Consumers can search for 7-Eleven within their chosen app, click on products and pay within the app. DoorDash users can find the convenience store chain within the "convenience" tab. Users can also request contactless delivery for their orders.
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By using the prompt "7-Eleven near me" on Google Search, Google Maps and Google Assistant, shoppers can order from nearby store locations, per the company statement.
Dive Insight:
The pandemic seems to have pushed 7-Eleven, along with other retailers, to re-think the meaning of convenience.
The company's partnership with other delivery services follows a broader trend of delivery apps pivoting to offer essential products like groceries during the COVID-19 pandemic. It's a smart pivot, as food delivery apps have seen a decline in downloads during the coronavirus pandemic, while grocery apps have seen a spike in downloads.
Last month, Uber introduced Uber Direct to deliver goods from grocery and convenience stores and Uber Connect to send care packages to loved ones. Meanwhile, DoorDash also cut commissions in half for local restaurants with five or fewer locations until the end of May, and Postmates introduced contactless deliveries in early March.
Before shelter-in-place orders disrupted brick-and-mortar retail operations, 7-Eleven was testing out a cashierless store at its Texas headquarters. The convenience store chain also temporarily offered free deliveries through its app through the end of April and also announced a contactless option for shoppers who prefer that the delivery driver drop off items at their front door.
"Expanding the marketplace beyond our stores has been a strategic goal, and these extraordinary times have accelerated our efforts to get the products our customers want and need to them as safely as possible," Raghu Mahadevan, 7-Eleven vice president of digital and head of delivery, said in a statement.
