Target's same-day delivery company Shipt is pushing further into the pharmacy space, announcing it now will work with CVS Health to deliver prescriptions within hours at most of its drugstores nationwide.
Shipt, based in Birmigham, Ala., got its start as a mobile app focused on grocery delivery, which remains its core business. This is its first foray into pharmacy.
CVS has been toying with same-day delivery for more than a year in select markets. It now offers offered home in a day or two at all of its 10,000 stores, including many in the Twin Cities.
Customers pay $7.99 for CVS delivery service, which also includes a range of other health items, including diapers and cold medicine. One- or two-day delivery costs $4.99.
An annual subscription to Shipt costs $99 and allows members to get same-day delivery service of more than 55,000 items from Target. Shipt members in the Twin Cities also have access to goods from Kowalski's and HyVee.
Target purchased Shipt in 2017 for $550 million in a competitive move to continue fortifying its delivery offerings against Amazon. Amazon last year purchased online pharmacy PillPack, its first major push into the health-care industry, for a reported $1 billion, according to CNBC.
CVS and Target have done business together in the past. In 2015, CVS purchased the Minneapolis-based retailer's pharmacy business for $1.9 billion, giving it 1,672 pharmacies in 47 states inside the retailer's stores.
Target appointed 25-year veteran Kelly Caruso as chief executive of Shipt last month. Caruso, who has worked in supply chain and merchandising, succeeded the company's entrepreneurial founder Bill Smith. Smith was to remain as an advisor during the transition.
