Have you ever craved a 7-Eleven Slurpee but didn’t want to leave the confront of your home? Now, with a newly announced partnership between GrubHub and 7-Eleven, you won’t have to.
The partnership was made official on Tuesday and includes the launch of Grubhub Goods. Instead of delivering food from restaurants, the on-demand service will deliver snacks, batteries, makeup and other convenience goods.
Prior to the national launch, Grubhub and 7-Eleven piloted the delivery of on-demand convenience items in New York. The pilot featured 12 7-Eleven stores in Manhatten where customers could order from a lineup of popular products that would then be delivered by Grubhub drivers.
The shift in the mobile food delivery industry to partner with stores and non-restaurant businesses has been in the works for several years. In recent years, competitor Uber, for example, added grocery and retail services to its platform and even offers pet food delivery as one of its services. And while the number of current deliverables is smaller on the Grubhub platform, it too has several non-food delivery options including hygienic personal care items, flowers and over-the-counter medicine.
“Diners have come to expect more choices when they land on Grubhub, including convenience options, which we see as a natural extension of our marketplace and a way to bring more value to the entire Grubhub ecosystem,” Kyle Goings, director of growth at Grubhub, said in a prepared statement. “We’ve been working with 7-Eleven for years to offer their locations on the Grubhub marketplace, and it was a no-brainer to team up with the convenience leader again and bring their operational expertise and scale to Grubhub Goods.”
According to Grubhub, offering convenience goods is a profitable business move. On average, Grubhub customers who place orders for convenience goods are more likely to order from restaurants in the future, according to the company.
GrubHub was launched in 2004 and has since gone public and acquired several companies and partnered with many others. It’s headquartered in Chicago and has more than 100 jobs currently open spanning multiple departments.
