from Hacker News

Target to Buy Shipt for $550M

by sedtrader on 12/13/17, 4:36 PM with 106 comments

• by harrisreynolds on 12/13/17, 7:47 PM

  I was employee #2 at Shipt and the early CTO. Was really great seeing us go from absolutely nothing to a strong platform, great team and lots of customers.

  In telling our story early on I would talk about how Lyft was #2 in the ride-hailing space and was a billion dollar company. If we could be #2 in the grocery delivery space we should command a comparable valuation to Instacart (meaning we'd be worth a fraction of their valuation, but it would still be great by any standard).

  And we did exactly this [1]. With much less cash (60M vs 800M+) and in a very short period of time (we literally hadn't started building this three years ago from today).

  I haven't been involved in the past couple years, but am still friends with the founder and several on the team; and had a bit of equity (whohoo! :-).

  Really happy for everyone involved and for Birmingham and Alabama!

  [1] Here are my ratios based on recent valuations:

  Lyft/Uber, 11B/70B = .16

  Shipt/Instacart, 550M/3.4B = .16

  Astonishingly accurate! :-)

• by jonknee on 12/13/17, 5:11 PM

  Shipt is a Birmingham based company, quite the positive news day for Alabama!

• by sedtrader on 12/13/17, 5:25 PM

  Smart decision by Target. Certainly a necessary move to simply keep pace with walmart, bestbuy, Amazon, etc. Doesn't really provide a clear edge, but allows Target to stay competitive in the market for the near future. Interesting decision by Shipt, a little surprised they couldn't get at least 1 billion for the purchase considering how big the e-commerce market is and its expected long term growth.

• by saturdaysaint on 12/13/17, 7:17 PM

  Since I haven't read other user reports here, I'll chime in and say I get most of my groceries from Shipt (in conjunction with a local grocer/retailer, Meijer) and it's been a fantastic, reliable service. The shoppers have been uniformly courteous and great at communicating if an item isn't available (you can opt to have them use their best judgement in these scenarios, and it's always worked out well). The experience of getting anything at a large grocery/general store delivered to your house within an hour or two is addictive. I really have nothing bad to say about it - competitors will have to compete on price.

• by ourmandave on 12/13/17, 5:26 PM

  Lately I've heard a lot of radio spots pushing Target's free shipping and pick-it-up at your local store.

  Which is competing / catching up with WalMart.

• by MrMember on 12/13/17, 5:03 PM

  I go to Target like three times a week on average. $99 a year for same day delivery is totally worth it for me.

• by kelukelugames on 12/13/17, 6:10 PM

  Yes please. I would love an amazon alternative, because I want to support a company that values its employees better. I started by letting my prime subscription expire.

• by bluedino on 12/13/17, 8:48 PM

  This is a very convenient service. But how viable is it long-term? People will only shop+deliver for $15-20/hour for so long until they realize between the cost of the vehicle and their time (plus taxes), they're not making nearly as much as they think.

• by harrisreynolds on 12/13/17, 5:09 PM

  This is awesome news for the team at Shipt!!

  It should be good for Target too. For them it is all about the technology and the entry point with lots of customers. And ultimately about giving them a way to better compete with Amazon and Walmart.

• by jamisteven on 12/14/17, 3:45 AM

  500m for what exactly? Really would like to see more numbers on this. Also dont see what Target has to gain from the acquisition, seems pointless given what I can see at surface level, there has to be more to this.

• by theklub on 12/13/17, 5:05 PM

  This reminded me of E-Dreams... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Dreams

• by hypermatt on 12/13/17, 5:03 PM

  quite a big purchase for target, have they bought any other startups in the space?

• by stocktech on 12/13/17, 5:06 PM

  This feels like Target grasping for straws. They're watching Walmart/Jet.com and asking themselves how to compete. I'd be amazing if they don't fuck this up.

• by lerie82 on 12/13/17, 6:18 PM

  "We aren’t in your city right now, but don’t lose hope! We are expanding into new cities every week. We’ll shoot you an email when we are expanding into your area!"

  This is definitely not in competition with Walmart, Amazon, or even a company I currently use for grocery delivery (instacart). It's a great move for a company that isn't even nationwide at this point. This should help them to move into more cities.

• by levicole on 12/13/17, 7:53 PM

  I just hope I can still get a publix sub with my groceries.

• by dwighttk on 12/13/17, 8:57 PM

  How in the world can they make money on $99/yr?

• by blairanderson on 12/13/17, 6:25 PM

  holy shipt

• by seattle_spring on 12/13/17, 5:45 PM

  I shipt my pants!

• by LeifCarrotson on 12/13/17, 5:18 PM

  I disagree that this is awesome news for the team at Shipt. The best exit is not always a buy-out; they seem to have been doing great as an independent company. Now they're tied to Target.

  I'm mostly worried about what will happen to their existing stores:

  > Our shoppers fulfill orders from your favorite local stores in the cities we serve! It varies by market, but we currently shop at your favorite local stores:

  ● ABC Fine Wine and Spirits

  ● Central Market

  ● Fry’s

  ● Harris Teeter

  ● H-E-B

  ● Kroger

  ● Meijer

  ● Publix

  ● Western

  > More stores will be offered as we grow! [1]

  Given that, I don't see a good reason for Target to have bought Shipt. Why not just sign up with them like these other retailers? Unless they plan to cut these partnerships.

  I certainly hope that they follow through on their claim from the article that "It will continue to operate independently and plans to expand its business with other retailers" and not have Target attempt to cut these partnerships.

  [1]: http://help.shipt.com/how-shipt-works/what-stores-are-suppor...