Australia’s biggest supermarket has added yet another online delivery option, offering more choice – but perhaps also complexity and confusion – for Woolworths shoppers.
The delivery platform DoorDash has emailed customers to let them know it is now delivering the supermarket’s groceries, promising “more choice for last-minute top-ups, weekly shops and everything in-between”.
This gives Woolworths customers four main delivery options: the supermarket’s own website, DoorDash, UberEats and Milkrun, which Woolworths acquired in 2023.
So which Woolworths option is cheapest? And how do prices compare to buying in store? Guardian Australia tested it out.
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DoorDash
Woolworths started using DoorDash soon after rival Coles severed its arrangement with the platform to partner exclusively with UberEats.
When it announced the DoorDash partnership in December, Woolworths said its “on demand grocery offering” now represented a significant 40% of all of its e-commerce orders.
Using my DoorDash account, I added several common Woolworths products to my cart. They were: one 750g loaf of Helga’s traditional wholemeal bread, five Cavendish bananas, 2 litres of Pura milk, 2 litres of Omo Sensitive laundry liquid, a 1kg bag of Woolworths own-brand basmati rice, and a carton of 12 Manning Valley free range eggs.
The price came to $61.05. When I went to place my order, the total came to $68.88, which included a 25 cent bag fee and a $7.33 service fee. DoorDash says it will charge a service fee of between $4.99 and $11.99 on Woolworths orders.
The platform said the usual $2.99 delivery fee had been waived on my order, which would have taken the total to $71.87. It gave me the option to an additional $2.99 express fee to have my groceries delivered in the next 35-53 minutes. Otherwise, I can choose standard delivery within a one-hour window starting about 50 minutes after I place my order. Or I can schedule ahead for another day.
The Woolworths website
On the Woolworths website, the six grocery items were cheaper than on DoorDash. This isn’t surprising, as delivery platforms typically have a price mark-up. My basket came to $56.50.
However, my total jumped to $73 when I factored in the $2 paper bag fee and $15 delivery fee. I’d have to pay $15 if I want my groceries to be delivered in a similar timeframe to what they would be if I ordered them on DoorDash.
Woolworths told me my order will be with me in “approx 1 hour and 5 minutes” and it would be sent via one of its third-party delivery partners anyway.
Woolworths’ cheapest delivery fee is just $2, as long as I place my order at least five days in advance, and allow the supermarket a six-hour window in which to deliver my groceries. If I was organised and doing a bigger online shop I’d chose this option as this would have reduced my total to $60.50 and made it cheaper than DoorDash.
However, if I want to order in advance and take advantage of the cheap delivery fees, I need to spend at least $50 on groceries. If I want to order a few items and have them delivered quickly then ordering directly from Woolworths isn’t the best option.
UberEats
On Uber Eats the groceries are identical in price to DoorDash, so once again my basket came to $61.05.
The total increased to $66.40 including the $5.99 service fee. I’m not a member of the platform’s subscription option Uber One, but it offered me a promotion on this order that waived the usual $6.99 delivery fee and gave me another 64 cents off in “Uber One credits”. Otherwise, my order would have been $74.30 altogether. That’s more expensive than the $68.88 I’d have spent on DoorDash, but UberEats promises to get my groceries to me faster.
Milkrun
On Milkrun, Woolworths’ in-house rapid delivery service, the groceries are similar in price to DoorDash and UberEats.
In my test basket, the laundry liquid and basmati rice were 90 cents and 15 cents more expensive, respectively, while the eggs and milk were 15 cents cheaper. My basket came to $61.70 in total. There’s no service fee and the app offered to waive my $5 delivery fee on this occasion. It said my ETA was 52 minutes.
In store
I caught the tram from the Guardian’s office in Melbourne’s CBD to the closest Woolworths to the delivery address I used to compare prices across the online options.
The prices in the supermarket were identical to those on the Woolworths website. The only difference is the bananas were sold for $4 a kilo rather than 86 cents each. I weighed five bananas which worked out to be $4.33. Altogether, my basket came to $56.53.
The verdict
As expected, buying groceries in-store is the cheapest and most time-consuming option. What’s more surprising is that shopping on the Woolworths website is by far the most expensive option if you want your items delivered in a comparable timeframe to other delivery apps.
My basket of groceries cost $20 more than they would in the Woolworths supermarket when factoring in the $15 delivery fee. Shopping on the Woolworths website is more economical if you’re doing a big shop and can plan ahead.
In terms of the other delivery options, the best value for money – and the most convenient – appears to be Milkrun. It doesn’t deliver everywhere in Australia, but in my case it was cheaper and faster than UberEats and DoorDash.
A Woolworths spokesperson said the supermarket offered a range of options to meet the needs of shoppers, who “continue to demand more fast and flexible grocery delivery”.
“Like in many services, there are additional costs when choosing an ‘express’ option,” they said.
“Customers can also pick from a number of other convenient options with prices clearly outlined, including our free direct to boot service as well as traditional home delivery.”
Woolworths’ “direct to boot” click and collect service is free if you schedule ahead, but it costs $5 for the express version, which the supermarket says means your groceries will be ready to be picked up in less than an hour.
