For a growing number of supermarkets looking to sell boxes of cereal, bottles of laundry detergent, and even fresh produce online, partnering with third-party services like Instacart, Postmates and Google Express offers an enticing proposition. With deep knowledge of consumer analytics and logistics, these providers can quickly get products into the hands of customers — sometimes, in as little as one hour.
For margin-starved retailers, these partnerships provide a shortcut to the e-commerce fast-lane. But they also present a unique set of challenges for grocers, industry analysts say.
