Target expands its Shipt and Drive Up services across the Midwest and Southeast

Target this morning announced it’s expanding its same-day shipping and pickup services, Drive Up and Shipt, across the Midwestern U.S. and the Southeast. The expansion will bring Shipt, its Instacart competitor for same-day grocery delivery and pickup, to more than 135 markets in the U.S. by the end of this month. Meanwhile, Target’s Drive Up curbside pickup service will reach more than 600 stores in 20 states this week, as a result of the expansion.

The news follows on Target’s earlier commitment to expand these services to stores nationwide by the 2018 holidays.

In total, the retailer says these current expansions will bring the shipping and pickup services to “tens of millions” of Target shoppers.

The company also offered a brief update on its other delivery and pickup services, Target Restock, a next-day essentials delivery service, and delivery of store purchases, which is available to select stores in urban markets where hauling home larger purchases without a vehicle is difficult.

Restock will reach more than 135 markets by the end of June, allowing Target online customers to stock up on household items like laundry detergent, trash bags, diapers, packaged foods, beauty and health needs, and more, then take delivery the next day. The service competes with Amazon’s Prime Pantry, which quietly introduced a $4.99 monthly subscription fee earlier in 2018 for Prime members who don’t want to pay the otherwise $7.99 flat shipping fee on their orders of $40 or more.

Target Restock, however, became free for Target REDcard purchases and $2.99 for all other orders back in May, undercutting Amazon.

Meanwhile, Shipt and Drive Up’s availability will often overlap as the two expand to Target stores across the U.S.

Drive Up is the newer of the two, allowing customers to place orders in the Target app, then pickup in 2 hours or less. The service was piloted in Target’s home market of Minneapolis-St. Paul, then rolled out to nearly 270 stores across Florida, Texas and the southeast in April.

Delivery of store purchases is not as widely available, as it’s meant to fill a gap in markets Drive Up can’t serve due to lack of parking – like urban Target stores. This service is now available in around 60 U.S. stores across five urban markets, allowing customers to shop the store, then take delivery of in-store purchases later the same day.

Chicago will be the first major market to have access to all four services, Target also notes.