It’s official. Costco now offers online grocery delivery in Canada.
The retail giant announced on Wednesday that it is starting to sell groceries online for the first time in Canada beginning with locations in southern Ontario. The move comes as Costco prepares for online retailer Amazon.com’s entry into the grocery market later this year. Costco already offers an online shopping service in the United States.
At first, delivery service will only be available in Southern Ontario, with all orders from Costco.ca processed out of a warehouse in Toronto. Costco eventually plans to expand deliveries to the rest of Ontario and into Quebec. No timelines have been set for other regions in Canada.
Costco Wholesale operates 99 warehouses in Canada and employs more than 39,000 people in the country. It said its website offers more than 19,000 items, whereas its stores offer about 3,500. The new service includes hundreds of grocery, health and beauty products, but it is limited to non-perishable products. It comes with a two-day delivery guarantee and doesn’t charge a delivery fee for orders over $75. There is currently no weekend delivery available.
The move online follows Walmart Canada Corp. and Loblaw Companies Ltd., both of which started delivering groceries in select Canadian markets in 2017. The online ventures followed Amazon.com’s acquisition of Whole Foods in summer 2017.
Online shopping also has the potential to attract new members to Costco, say analysts, as it removes some of the bulk-buying brand’s downsides by enabling consumers to avoid weekend traffic in parking lots and the need to lug heavy goods home. Plus, deliveries may be especially appealing for small and medium enterprises, an important segment for Costco.
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