- Grocery retailer Kroger Co (NYSE: KR) has announced Kroger Ship will expand to offer an extended ship-to-home assortment through a marketplace offering of third-party sellers
Grocery retailer Kroger Co (NYSE: KR) has announced Kroger Ship will expand to offer an extended ship-to-home assortment through a marketplace offering of third-party sellers. The new service will be powered by Mirakl, which is the leading software platform enabling B2C and B2B digital marketplaces. Mirakl’s works with over 250 customers in 40 countries including Urban Outfitters, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Best Buy Canada, Carrefour, Siemens, and Toyota Material Handling USA, Inc.
Kroger Ship — which launched in August 2018 — will offer customers an extended aisle of products made available through marketplace partners. To start, more than 50,000 additional items will be available to customers across multiple categories, including natural and organic, international food, specialty items, housewares, and toys.
Kroger’s marketplace products are expected to launch this fall. And eligible Kroger.com orders earn loyalty rewards like fuel points. And Kroger’s strategic investments in e-commerce technology and channels over the past two and half years under Restock Kroger have positioned the company to more effectively respond to the sustained and increased demand of delivery, pickup, and ship-to-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. And in Kroger’s first-quarter 2020 results, the company’s digital sales grew 92%.
KEY QUOTES:
“Our customers are increasingly turning to our e-commerce solutions provided at Kroger.com for their grocery and household essential needs. To better serve our customers, we’re continuing to invest in technology that enables us to expand our digital services to deliver anything, anytime, anywhere. Leveraging Mirakl’s best-in-class marketplace solution, we are broadening Kroger’s ship-to-home capabilities by offering more relevant products for our customers through exciting new partnerships with reputable third-party sellers.”
— Kroger’s group vice president of product experience Jody Kalmbach
“Kroger has long been a retail giant, and by integrating an online marketplace into its leading eCommerce experience, Kroger is continuing to lead from the front. It’s clearer than ever that digital marketplaces are the foundation of the next generation of commerce, and we look forward to supporting Kroger as it takes advantage of this opportunity.”
— Mirakl CEO and co-founder Adrien Nussenbaum
“The expansion of our Kroger Ship platform will continue to bring together our industry-leading customer insights and merchandising data to offer our customers a digital shopping experience that includes staples available in our physical stores as well as products that are exclusive to Kroger.com. As part of our continuing transformation, we look forward to accelerating the development of our e-commerce platform and providing our customers with even more choices.”
— Kroger’s senior vice president and chief merchant and marketing officer Stuart Aitken
