Canadian retailer Empire is partnering Instacart and Uber Eats to provide more ways to shop its grocery stores online.

These partnerships complement Voilà, Empire’s existing online grocery home delivery service. Instacart and Uber Eats users will now see Empire banner stores on their apps in Ontario, with rollout across Canada to follow.

By making its banners available on the additional channels of Instacart and Uber Eats, Empire is responding to evolving market dynamics and customer demands, particularly in ecommerce. Shoppers in Ontario will now have more ways to enjoy products from Empire’s banners using Instacart and Uber Eats. And, for the first time, FreshCo customers in the province can have their products delivered to their door.

“We are excited to be expanding our ecommerce offering and continuing to grow the market,” said Doug Nathanson, chief development officer at Empire. “Through these new partnerships with Instacart and Uber Eats, Empire has expanded how customers can shop our banners, giving us access to a larger segment of the ecommerce market. We have proudly offered home delivery service to customers with our world-class Voilà platform since 2020 and now expand our reach to give more customers more choices, faster. That’s a winning recipe.”

Shoppers download their app of choice, select their preferred participating Empire banner store, and fill their baskets with products.

“At Instacart, we’re always looking for ways to bring more variety and convenience to our customers, so we couldn’t be more thrilled to grow our presence in Canada by welcoming Empire’s iconic grocery store banners to the Instacart app,” said Chris Rogers, chief business officer at Instacart. “As someone who calls Canada home and has been going to these grocery stores for as long as I can remember, I’m excited to provide Empire’s customers with an additional channel of exceptional online grocery experience.”

Klaas Knieriem, head of grocery and retail for Uber Eats (www.uber.com) in Canada, added: “We are thrilled to welcome Empire and its banners to the Uber Eats app. Canadians now have more grocery options available to choose from right from the Uber or Uber Eats apps they already have on their phone with the on-demand speed Uber is known for. Uber Eats has grown quickly from a platform to get your favourite meals delivered to a one-stop-shop for anything you need, from pharmacy essentials to groceries to alcohol and everyday household items. We’re continuously expanding the in-app selection by bringing new retailers onto the delivery platform to deliver Canadians their favourite items.” 

Empire (www.empireco.ca) is a Canadian company headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia. Its key businesses are food retailing, through wholly-owned subsidiary Sobeys and related real estate. With approximately $31.5bn in annual sales and $16.9bn in assets, Empire and its subsidiaries, franchisees and affiliates employ approximately 128,000 people.

North American grocery technology company Instacart (www.instacart.ca) partners with more than 1500 national, regional and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 85,000 stores across North America. For more information, visit www.instacart.com.