Google will begin testing a delivery service for fresh food and groceries in two US cities later this year, Bloomberg Business reports.
The company already delivers merchandise and dry foods to customers through its Google Express service. The service, which is being rolled out in partnership with Whole Foods Market and Costco, places Google in direct competition with Amazon and Instacart.
Google Express general manager Brian Elliot says the company hasn’t been able to offer “whole store” service to merchants and customers, but it makes sense to do so.
“For a lot of our merchants that have been successful with this, we’re not representing the whole store today,” he told Bloomberg.
“It’s in our incentive, as well as the merchant’s incentive, for us to help customers get the full store delivered to them.”
The online grocery shopping market is still relatively young in Australia.
Startups like YourGrocer, and Grocery Butler are battling supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths in the space, but we’ve yet to see a big international corporation tackle it here, despite rumours of an Amazon Fresh Australian launch.
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Kye began his career at a Fairfax daily on the North-West Coast of Tasmania. He has since taken his belongings, and keen interest in technology, to Melbourne. He has a bachelor of Arts majoring in Political Science from the University of Tasmania and a Graduate Diploma in Journalism from RMIT University.
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