Point Pickup Acquires GrocerKey as E-Commerce Mergers Continue

GrocerKey, a “white-label” e-commerce platform powering online shopping for independent retailers like Woodman’s Markets and Kowalski’s, has been acquired by Point Pickup Technologies, a last-mile fulfillment provider, continuing a string of acquisitions of e-commerce technologies in the wake of ballooning opportunity.

Point Pickup, based in Stamford, Conn., said the acquisition would allow it to offer retailers what it called the industry’s first end-to-end, own-branded last-mile fulfillment and delivery service and would give its clients control over their brands within the seamless experience.

“With almost 68 million U.S. households placing online orders this past May, retailers no longer want to give away last-mile business to other consumer-facing platforms. We listened to our clients, and now with the integration of GrocerKey’s technology into our last-mile delivery platform, they can reclaim their brand and revenue while maintaining control of their e-commerce data and customer experience from start to finish,” Tom Fiorita, founder and CEO of Point Pickup Technologies, said in a statement.

GrocerKey is at least the fourth grocery-focused e-commerce platform to have been bought out this year, as established businesses look to integrate e-commerce solutions into their businesses. In January, NCR said it was buying Freshop. Weeks later, the item management software ADC acquired ShopperKit. And earlier this summer, ShopHero was sold to food redistruibutor Dot Foods.

Jeremy Neren, co-founder and CEO of Minneapolis-based GrocerKey, has been named SVP of e-commerce strategy at Point Pickup.

“Early on, we were impressed not just by the scale and sophistication of Point Pickup’s technology and services, but also their focus on bringing the customer back to enterprise retailers,” Neren said in a statement. “Being able to provide brands with complete control over their e-commerce services from point of sale to delivering to customers’ homes is a game-changer. I’m excited to join the Point Pickup team along with our GrocerKey family and am eager to move forward with the integration of our technologies and companies.”

Neren established GrocerKey in 2014 as an evolution of Munchie Delivery, a bicycle-based delivery service he’d founded in Madison, Wis., in 2006. It serves dozens of regional grocers in the U.S. and Canada.

Point Pickup’s grocery delivery clients include Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons and Giant Eagle. It also serves merchants of general merchandise, pharmacy and oversized delivery. Its platform is driven by what it calls its precision matching technology, which “matches the right delivery to the right driver and vehicle every time, leading to a more consistent and higher quality experience for customers.” The company said the same technology will be used to locate the workers to extend its services to both shopping and delivery.

By integrating GrocerKey’s technology, Point Pickup can now provide an end-to-end solution that extends from pick-and-pack to last-mile delivery via plug-and-play modules that can easily integrate into retailers’ current e-commerce platforms.