Google expands Express delivery service into Wisconsin

In partnership with Google Express, PetSmart®, the largest specialty pet retailer of services and solutions for the lifetime needs of pets, has been serving the on-demand delivery needs of pet parents for almost a year with its same-day service in six cities across the nation, serving thousands of store-to-door customer deliveries per week in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Chicago and D.C. Today, the two companies announce that they are expanding with overnight service in Chicagoland and a five-state Midwest region (120-mile radius from Chicago) in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio serving 25 million people.

Google Express allows users to shop at any of the sixteen local participating stores, online or through their app. For a fee, shoppers can have the item(s) delivered to their house the next day. National chains Whole Foods and Costco will provide fresh groceries, Mr. Elliott told Bloomberg. The plan is now to capitalize on the cachet of the existing brands Google has joined with – Elliott said the plan was “to connect people with their favorite stores”, and the site features logos from those stores – including Amazon competitor Barnes & Noble.

Google Express launched Tuesday morning in parts of Michigan, including Lansing, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids.

If you have no idea what Google Express is, I wouldn’t blame you.

No doubt, Google’s trying to compete with Amazon’s Fresh Direct service. Unfortunately, while Indianapolis and Milwaukee make the list, the cities of Cinncinati, Cleveland, and Detroit do not. It will start with San Francisco and partner with Costco and Whole Food for this objective, pickups will be made directly from their stores and delivered to customers at a time of their choosing. “With a Google Express membership, delivery is free on eligible orders over $15”. A BI Intelligence report put the forecast for the delivery sector of the $700bn United States market at $18bn by 2018.