🏃‍♂️💨 Social Proof, Maxi Pads, and Referrals: A Love Letter to Gopuff

I had no idea Gopuff existed prior to late 2020, when, in the midst of staying at home and disinfecting my grocery deliveries, I caught this announcement on Techcrunch:

At the time, it seemed like a tech-first, on-demand delivery platform had overextended itself by acquiring a brick and mortar retailer. I had worked with BevMo during my Anheuser-Busch days, and they’re not a small operation. I could see the distribution play, though, so my attention was officially captured.

Then, in March 2021, I saw this:

Okay…hats off on the fundraise. But there is a massive difference between raising money at high valuations and actually providing value - a dynamic we are all too familiar with in cannabis tech. Does Gopuff actually deliver?

🍪 🍻💊 A specific set of products

I hadn’t ordered on Gopuff until two weeks ago. Several members of Jane relied on the platform to order cookies and chips and other sundries - but I didn’t really see the value yet. After all, I already have a bunch of on-demand apps that accommodated my various instant gratification needs:

• DoorDash - for meals. At least once per week (though I order directly from the restaurant when possible)

• UberEats - if DoorDash doesn’t have it

• Instacart - groceries

• Target - for household stuff; we usually order for pickup

Honestly, I felt more or less covered.

But then, Dry January happened…

🙅🏻‍♂️ No alcohol for Brian

The holiday season is fun, and indulgent. And it was actually relatively cold and rainy in Southern California, so we stayed in the house a lot.

Which is to say - I had more IPAs and glasses of vino than I normally would. Had a little padding around the midsection. “Festively plump” is a pretty spot-on description.

When late December rolled around, it was time to drink a lot of water and swear off the sauce for a month. I bought Cann’s discounted value pack, ordered my edibles, and hunkered down.

A super interesting byproduct of avoiding booze: my consumption of sparkling waters (“spicy” water, as my kids call it) skyrocketed. I’m all about it - La Croix, Bubly, Waterloo, Pellegrino. Make it zero calories, make it bubbly, and I’m on board.

My consumption surpassed my stockpile quickly. A colleague mentioned Gopuff during a call, so I downloaded the app to explore if I could replace my spicy waters.

💡 A quick note on consumer expectations these days

eCommerce has exploded over the last 20 years, with an unfathomable acceleration during the pandemic. Supply chains have gotten more efficient; large brick and mortar retailers realized they didn’t have thousands of stores; but rather, they had thousands of distribution centers to fulfill online orders.

All of these changes have had an impact on our expectations. We are all trained to expect every item in the world to be available to us, with most of them landing on our doorstep within an hour.

In other words:

Traditional retail has gotten pretty good at this. Amazon, Target, on-demand meal services, and now: Gopuff for c-store wares.

Here’s an overview of my experience:

🏡 Welcome home

Cool branding, fast load times. Every item has a clean, high-res image, and every “collection” card has a pleasant aggregated design.

Free delivery (because I joined the “Fam”, a rewards program - we’ll get to that later) in ~30 minutes.

The selection of items hit a sweet spot in my brain the first time I used the app - these are products that may be available via a grocery delivery service like Instacart, but that I probably wouldn’t think to buy on that platform (more concerned with bananas and turkey and stuff on Instacart).

And then it hit me: these are the items that you get at a fancy gas station when you’re filling up. This is fancy gas station stuff. Who doesn’t love a fancy gas station?

🎯 Personalization and Selection

The app, unsurprisingly, keeps track of my purchases and makes recommendations for me. (FWIW, the Black Cherry Waterloo is awful. You can skip it)

I like that level of personalization - I don’t want to go on a shopping journey every time I open up the app. Predict what I want and make it one check mark away.

The category selection screens give you an idea of how diverse the offerings are. You can get a lot of staples and also some nice-to-have’s.

💵 Quick adds and rewards

I love a quick-add button. Don’t make me load a product card screen to add something to my cart. Give me a plus button.

I also love a sub-category navigator. See above - we’re in the Snacks category, and we can see all kinds of sub-categories. Easy for me to navigate, easy for me to get upsold.

You can see that my bag of Boom Chicka Pop earned me 200 rewards points. I think you get points for every purchase, and I’m sure they’ll add up to some reward. (I don’t even know what the reward is and I’m happy that I’m earning points)

💵 Social proof, maxi pads, and referrals

Gopuff does a phenomenal job of harping on social proof - “here’s what people with similar browsing history looked at, in case you care.” The truth is: we do care. We are in constant search of digital social proof, via “similar product” lists, star ratings, and verified long-form product reviews. It’s important to feel like we’re making selections “correctly.”

On a separate note, there are postpartum maxi pads (iced) in the baby section. If that is not brilliant cross-selling, I don’t know what is. It’s relevant! You probably need it!

Lastly, the network that Gopuff is creating is impressive. Providing rewards points to build loyalty, and incentivizing referrals to build reach.

My first order was two weeks ago, and I’ve ordered five times. It’s too convenient and it’s too fast - it’s hard not to use it. 👏

🌱 Re cannabis

This level of efficiency doesn’t exist in cannabis yet. We have nailed some parts of the equation, but not all, and certainly not within the same platform. You tend to either have a huge inventory and great shopping, coupled with a hit or miss fulfillment process; or you have a sad inventory that can be delivered in 20 minutes.

The Gopuff experience is coming, though. It’ll be an aggregated marketplace or it’ll be a gigantic single retailer with on-demand drivers…but it’s coming.

📚 tl: dr

• We have been trained to expect an unlimited inventory, efficient online payments, and immediate delivery

• I’m doing dry January, as I am festively plump

• Gopuff has “fancy gas station” wares that hit a sweet spot not covered by other on-demand services

• Personalization, quick-add buttons, efficient navigation, upsell and cross-sell opportunities, incentivized referrals, and delivery in ~30 minutes…is a good recipe

• It is Thursday