Inside Gopuff’s new B-to-B strategy
In a bid to expand its revenue streams, Gopuff has launched a new platform that would allow other brands to provide affordable delivery from their own websites.
The new platform, called Powered by Gopuff, is a logistics and technology platform that allows brands to fulfill orders as quickly as 15 minutes. The first solution offered by the new platform is called Storefronts Powered by Gopuff, which would allow CPG brands to produce their own white-labeled DTC site. Already, Gopuff has landed partnerships with 20 consumer packaged goods brands, including Ben & Jerry’s, Unilever and Mondelēz International.
At this week’s Modern Retail Commerce Summit, Gopuff’s svp of Business Daniel Folkman discussed the company’s new Powered by Gopuff platform and its growth plans for the rest of the year. Folkman spoke about how the new updates could allow other brands to meet customers’ ever-changing expectations on delivery.
“We’ve built all of the technology that powers everything from how we receive product and order it to how we get it to the customer,” Folkman said. “Over the last 10 years, we feel like we’ve successfully been the face of instant commerce.”
Gopuff was founded back in 2013 by Yakir Gola and Rafael Ilishayev, originally as a hookah delivery service. The company soon expanded its delivery capabilities to food, alcohol and other goods. The startup’s valuation reached as high as $15 billion in 2021.
More recently, the company began venturing outside of its core business. Last year, the company started allowing brands that don’t sell products on its platform to advertise through the Gopuff app. Now, the company is leveraging its hyper-local logistics network to offer speedy delivery to large CPG businesses.
“Rather than just being another retail media network, we decided to launch a B-to-B capability,” Folkman said. “The idea is that it is this white-label fulfillment solution for big CPG to enable 30 [minute] or less delivery on their own website.”
The solution not only allows brands to sell products directly to shoppers but it also lets brands acquire first-party data on their own website and build direct relationships with their own shoppers. Folkman said the service, built in partnership with Shopify, is fully customizable to match the brands’ image. Gopuffs’ new service can currently serve over 1,000 U.S. cities.
The company has been testing Storefronts Powered by Gopuff with various large CPG businesses over the last six months. Its brand partners, Tums and Jif, used Storefronts during the Big Game, which allowed them to sell through their allocated inventory in less than an hour.
At the moment, Powered by Gopuff is only available to brands that already sell products on Gopuff. But the company is beginning to onboard in-demand brands that aren’t on Gopuff.
As Folkman described it, the new service makes it possible for CPG brands to drive more conversions from digital ads that don’t link to external retailers. “Everybody is spending money on Facebook and Instagram already,” Folkman said. “It’s an opportunity to drive traffic somewhere where someone can make a purchase.”
Folkman said the company opted to work with larger brands for this initial launch due to its existing relationship. Gopuff will soon expand the platform for small and mid-sized CPG brands. The company is planning to launch a second product later this quarter, which would allow Gopuff to work with Shopify merchants to offer instant delivery capabilities at their checkout.
“The way we’ve positioned it with brands is that we’re not asking brands to spend any more media than you’re already spending,” Folkman said. “We’re asking you to spend your media smarter.”