Delivery company Shipt scales capacity at speed to meet fluctuating demand with super-fast, Scandit-powered barcode scanning mobile app. New or temporary contractors get up and running in no time, using personal smartphones to pick customer orders in stores and obtain proof of delivery on the doorstep when dropping off goods. With many consumers reluctant to physically shop in stores, the demand and importance of the service has never been higher.

Chace Burnette
Shipt’s members rely on our shoppers to bring groceries to their doors. Speed is vital. With Scandit’s high quality scanning, shoppers are empowered with an intuitive smartphone app to work safely, quickly and accurately, on any device.
Chace Burnette, Principal Engineer at Shipt

Challenge

Shipt facilitates same-day delivery of groceries and essential goods from Target and other major retailers to its members. Independent contractors fulfill online orders using the ‘Shipt Shopper’ mobile app on personal smartphones. They pick and scan items from customers’ shopping lists, then drop orders off at the doorstep.

Scale capacity to address fluctuations in demand

Maintaining sufficient capacity to meet peaks in delivery demand is vital. The coronavirus pandemic saw an unprecedented surge in home delivery demand. Order numbers tripled, as customers avoided shopping in stores. Shipt needed to ensure that they:

  • Had enough shoppers and drivers for home shopping delivery.
  • Could onboard and equip new and temporary staff at speed and scale.
  • Were prepared to respond to unplanned or short term demand peaks.

Shipt had to scale up quickly, doubling their workforce by hiring 100,000 new employees to meet this demand. That meant enabling high performance scanning on any smart device including contractor owned. The open source scanning software they tested couldn’t deliver that.

Scanning is an essential function for Shipt shoppers who needed a quick and error-free solution. It also had to be safe for shoppers to pick orders in-store and obtain proof of delivery from customers on receipt of the goods.

Solution

High-performance barcode scanning: improves productivity and user experience

Shipt wanted a scanning solution that was easy and seamless to deploy into their app and simple to maintain. With their Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy and the need to scale and onboard thousands of new contractors, it had to work on any device make or model.

The company investigated different software-based scanning options. But the onset of the coronavirus pandemic meant they needed a quick and effective solution. They selected Scandit’s barcode scanner SDK due to its top scanning performance, even on low-end smartphones, which is useful when onboarding new starters.

Says Shipt’s Chace Burnette, “ COVID-19 created an unprecedented surge in demand. We needed a scanning solution that could quickly scale up, deliver a quality user experience, while keeping customers and contractors safe. Scandit’s fast, accurate, intuitive scanning means little training is needed for quick, contactless order picking.” 

Results

BYOD scanning flexibility, to scale at speed

Since deploying Scandit’s barcode scanning solution, Shipt is confident that they have a flexible solution in place for future unplanned peaks. Scandit was simple to integrate and deploy into their existing shopper app, making it easy to scale at speed in a tough environment. Independent contractors/shoppers use the scanning-enabled Shipt app on their own smartphone device to complete multiple workflows from order picking to obtaining proof of delivery.

Supported by Scandit, Shipt provided its shoppers with:

  • Fast and accurate contactless in-store order picking, minimizing contact with products. 
  • Scanning of any barcode type, at difficult angles, in poor lighting and on obscure labels. 
  • Safe store operations whilst delivering a high quality customer service. 

Intuitive scanning takes control of stock replenishment

Scandit delivered the expert guidance and technical support that Shipt needed during a turbulent period, to ensure smooth deployment and scale-up. Shipt has seen exponential growth to over 89K monthly active devices. According to Chace, “Scandit was key in supporting our BYOD strategy and helping us scale up and down based on demand.  We are able to onboard new contractors quickly because we know the essential scanning function will just work on any smart device.”

He adds, “Another challenge created by COVID-19 was shortages of essential products. Our shoppers provide a huge amount of vital data on stock availability, as they are our hands in stores. With Scandit, every scan helps us confidently know exactly what is and isn’t available, helping set customer expectations ahead of time or alerting shoppers when something isn’t available in certain locations.” 

With the shift in the market showing no signs of slowing down, Shipt will continue to deliver essential goods to their increasing numbers of members through their Scandit-powered shoppers.

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