Any sports fan will tell you that a key element in enjoying a game is the snacks. Go without and a win does not taste as sweet. Gopuff doesn’t want ESPN viewers to risk it. That’s one of the reasons why it entered a partnership with Disney and its ESPN, Hulu and Disney+ streamers.
Michael Peroutka, head of ads and partnerships for Gopuff
“We have a virtual concession stand with a QR code where you can have items delivered in 15 minutes,” said Michael Peroutka, Gopuff’s head of ads and partnerships, in an interview. “Our goal is to make this as frictionless as possible. We don’t want to ask somebody to download an app. We formed a relationship with Shopify to build standalone websites of our localized inventory. Somebody who’s watching College GameDay in Gainesville will have a different assortment experience than somebody in Philadelphia cheering on Penn State.”
Gopuff has been on a roll with partnerships. In July it announced a collaboration with Amazon for grocery deliveries for Prime members in the United Kingdom. Last year it rolled out a program with Starbucks in Philadelphia. In a world in which consumers want items at the speed of desire, Gopuff offers an enviably speedy fulfillment model.
“When people have more time, they feel their lives are more fulfilled,” he said. “We want to give people back time. We’re never going to be able to let consumers download a meal Wonka style. But we believe that we offer the next best thing.”
It has taken a Herculean effort for the brand to arrive where it now sits in global commerce. “We’ve invested billions of dollars in infrastructure in the past decade,” he said. “What we do is operationally incredibly complex. Our partners realize that. Our tech stack has value to them.”
Disney certainly coveted its capabilities.
“They told us, Look, we have a very engaged audience. We want them to consume more content on our platform. The last thing we want is for them to turn off ESPN and go to the store. How can we get them to stay where they are?” he said. “We could easily integrate into what they were trying to do and provide the back-end logistics expertise.”
In the virtual concession stand, Gopuff runs ads from consumer-packaged goods. If a couch potato craves Ruffles, those wavy potato chips can be ordered in a matter of seconds.
Peroutka anticipates the partnership will make waves and continue Gopuff’s momentum.
“Our Starbucks partnership is working great. They approached us and said our sales happen from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. If you look at our sales volume, it’s the inverse. Our sales peak between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., and about 60 percent of our sales happen between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. They saw us as an incremental opportunity. So we started building out Starbucks stores in our micro-fulfillment center in Philadelphia. You can get your Frappuccino or iced coffee delivered alongside everything else. And when you click through the site, the Starbucks tab looks like you’re in the Starbucks app.”
Instant delivery has been growing throughout the world, perhaps most strikingly in India, where such companies as Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart promise products in 10 minutes. Population density is the key, says Peroutka.
“That’s why you’re seeing a lot of boom in that market,” he said. “We have the same criteria. Could we open a location in the Dakotas? It would be challenging. The travel time would be too great.”
But in markets with density, Gopuff offers a lot of value to partners.
“We’re vertically integrated. We’re the inventory owner. That’s what differentiates us from Uber Eats or DoorDash or Instacart. Those are marketplaces that connect retailers to consumers. Gopuff is the retailer. We’re the consumer-facing app,” he said. “That ends up being good for the consumer. We believe our partnerships with Disney and Starbucks and Amazon make sense for consumers.”
