C-store Retailers Invest in Vroom Delivery

CHICAGO — A trio of convenience store retailers have invested in the retail technology company Vroom Delivery.

Wesco, Hutchinson Oil dba Hutch's and FavTrip, along with other professional investors, were part of Vroom's latest fundraising round. The three retail companies are longtime customers of the platform.

The new capital will allow Vroom to accelerate growth and continue to invest in new features and automation development. It will also enhance the company's onboarding and account management programs.

Vroom Delivery has experienced rapid growth in recent years and now partners with chains representing thousands of stores in nearly 40 states.

Muskegon, Mich.-based Wesco was the first chain to join the Vroom platform in 2018. After initially offering in-store pickup from select stores with hot prepared food, Wesco now offers home delivery from 36 locations as well as curbside and in-store pickup at all 56 stores in western Michigan.

"Year over year we continue to see sales grow. We have been able to establish that a customer who is ordering for home delivery generates a basket size almost three times [the] ring as a customer who visits our store directly," said Nancy Westgate-Systema, co-president of Wesco.

"But even beyond the increases in sales, we have gained other benefits that maybe we didn't initially anticipate," she continued. "This feedback from one of our customer survey comments about their Vroom order says it best: 'Always great service, and the customer service is always positive... . Very helpful for people that have health issues and cannot get out or are able to have someone do errands for them.' These types of replies cause a real pause for us for a moment, as we knew doing something like this would help our customers, but we hadn't realized just how much."

Elk City, Okla.-based Hutchinson Oil was also an early client of Vroom Delivery, joining in 2019. The company's large format sites offer a foodservice program to customers in primarily rural areas of Oklahoma. Hutchinson stores had particular success using Vroom to attract customers to their drive-thrus while also providing delivery and curbside pickup in several markets, reported Vroom.

Hutchinson's food offerings and customer service regularly receive the highest customer rankings of stores on the Vroom platform, it added.

Additionally, Kansas City, Mo.-base FavTrip is a frequent first adopter of new features on Vroom. The company was the first convenience retailer in the country to launch online EBT payments, as well as the first to utilize Vroom's white-label, third-party delivery aggregation service that enables stores to cost effectively delivery orders through driver networks such as DoorDash Drive and Uber Direct.

"We are humbled by the confidence that our customers have in our product, our team and our ability to continue to bring the industry online," said John Nelson, CEO of Vroom Delivery. "Our mission is to provide an online ordering experience for consumers that delivers a seamless omnichannel experience: the same deals, coupons, product selection, loyalty and payment options. We have already achieved many of these goals and this commitment from our customers helps us get the rest of the way there."

Based in Chicago, Vroom Delivery is a full-stack e-commerce solution for convenience stores, providing the technical aspects required for chains to operate and manage their own e-commerce and delivery services.