Dive Brief:
- Exxon Tiger Mart has partnered with Lula Commerce to add third-party delivery to 20 locations in South Carolina, the technology company announced on LinkedIn Tuesday.
- Customers can now order food from 10 locations on Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub, with the remaining stores expected to come online in 2025, said Adit Gupta, cofounder and CEO of Lula Commerce, in an email.
- A number of convenience retailers have used Lula’s managed services to build out their e-commerce offerings, including Jacksons Food Stores, Atlantis Management Group and Clipper. The technology is also available to more than 800 franchised Circle K operators.
Dive Insight:
With the labor market still tight and store-level workers sometimes wearing a number of different hats, agreements like this one with Lula can help employees focus on other duties.
These partnerships turn key functions like delivery service management and order resolution over to Lula Commerce. Tiger Mart has already saved more than 100 hours of operational work through the agreement, according to the LinkedIn post. Lula also offers menu digitization, retailer training and more.
Outsourcing parts of that work to companies experienced with delivery may also help improve customer satisfaction.
Adding e-commerce to a retailer’s toolkit can help add incremental sales, especially as 56% of customers see convenience stores as a viable alternative to fast food restaurants, according to Intouch Insight.
So far this year, a number of c-stores have hopped on the delivery bandwagon. In addition to those partnering with Lula, companies like Dandy, Rutter’s and Tri-Star Energy have added the technology to their stores.
