Costco digital sales pass $33bn as DoorDash and Uber Eats tie-ups widen reach

Digitally-enabled sales, a category that includes orders placed through third-party delivery marketplaces, topped $33 billion for the fiscal year and grew more than 20%, chief executive Ron Vachris said on the company's fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year earnings call on Thursday.

Delivery partnerships have been the main engine behind that growth. Within the past month Costco has told members in the United States that they can now order delivery nationwide through both DoorDash and Uber Eats. Shoppers are required to enter their membership number at checkout to confirm they hold a Costco membership.

Vachris said the sales flowing through those platforms are mostly incremental and have had limited impact on Costco's core warehouse grocery business. He described the newer tie-ups as complementary to the company's long-running partnerships with Instacart in the U.S. and Canada.

Costco first piloted a grocery delivery service with Instacart in 2016. Its Uber Eats partnership began as a trial across 17 states before the company announced in mid-September that it would roll the arrangement out nationwide.

The delivery channels are also pulling in a younger customer base, Vachris said. Since the Covid pandemic, the number of Costco members under the age of 40 has increased by more than 60%, and those shoppers now account for more than a quarter of the retailer's total membership.