Grubhub Deepens Grocery Offering With Mercato Partnership

Grubhub is expanding its grocery presence via a partnership with online marketplace Mercato.

The collaboration, announced Thursday (April 18), will bring Mercato’s inventory from more than 950 independent grocery stores nationwide to the Grubhub Marketplace. 

“Grubhub started as a marketplace for independent restaurants, so it’s only fitting that as we expand into the grocery space, it’s first with a partner that works with independent grocers,” Craig Whitmer, vice president of new verticals at Grubhub, said in a news release. 

“By joining forces with local grocers, we’re not just delivering for our customers, but we’re delivering for small businesses to help grow their online presence. Our customers can now get more of what they need on Grubhub while Mercato’s merchants gain access and increased visibility among our customers,” he added. 

Mercato’s merchant network spans 38 states and more than 320 cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston. Grubhub users can order from a wide selection of merchants, including delis, seafood and fresh produce markets, as well as bakeries, butcher shops and natural foods stores.

The partnership comes one day after another delivery service, Gopuff, joined forces with online grocer Misfits Market to allow for near-instant delivery of fresh products.

In an interview with PYMNTS, Misfits Market CEO Abhi Ramesh said the move aims to meet consumers’ expectations that they will be able to get groceries online not only to stock their fridges and pantries on a regular basis but also for their last-minute needs.

“That demand is a little different from the demand on the Misfits side,” Ramesh said. “For Misfits, it’s someone who’s planning their full grocery trip every week and buying all of their items to cook. For Gopuff, it’s really a quick convenience items. … There’s a lot of demand because they’re often last-minute buys even at a grocery store, and Gopuff can now replicate that.”

These partnerships meet the needs of the consumers featured in the PYMNTS Intelligence/PayPal study “Consumer Interest in an Everyday App,” which found that, among the 35% of U.S. consumers who expressed a strong desire for an everyday app, nearly seven in 10 said they would want to purchase groceries from such an app.

The expanded grocery offering could help Grubhub entice new customers as the company is seeing its order volume drop. Earlier this week, the company’s parent — Dutch delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway — said during an earnings presentation that its North American order volume had declined by double digits for the second quarter in a row.