September 27, 2006

LicketyShip Offers Same-Day Product Delivery

Nik Cubrilovic

38 comments »

LicketyShip is a new service launching today (we spoke about it previously here) that allows you to shop online at a number of different local stores and to have products that you order delivered within 4 hours. It works by co-ordinating the online stores close to you with courier companies, allowing you to receive goods that you order very quickly. The service is currently in alpha though launching today in the San Francisco Bay Area and has plans to expand in other areas over time.

The service is easy to use, you search for a product by name and specify your zip code. The site will then query local stores and show you results of products that are available to order. When you place an order, it will fetch the item from the nearest store and then have it delivered to you. The ordering process is simple enough, and the only additional cost is a $19.99 fee for the delivery service. Search is currently restricted to electronic goods, but they also plan to expand on this as well.

I know that I often choose to go to a local store over ordering online because I can’t wait for a 2 or more day delivery time, so LicketyShip might make that easier for some. The question is if it is worth the fee, I can see a lot of businesses using this for office supplies and other goods, and possibly some consumers who are impatient. They can delivery up to 7pm on most nights (which I assume means you can order up till 3pm and have it delivered that day) while on Friday’s and Saturdays can deliver up till 8pm. I expect to see more improvements in the product search engine, as well as the range of retailers supported (they have an API) - I don’t think there is any doubt that the tight integration with courier companies and the value-add of same day delivery will be worth something to a lot of people.

Sphere It

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 27th, 2006 at 9:45 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

Moments of Clarity

September 27th, 2006 at 12:04 pm

TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » LicketyShip、商品の即日発送サービスを提供

September 27th, 2006 at 2:42 pm

ourr » links for 2006-09-28

September 27th, 2006 at 5:36 pm

The 2 Minute Drill

December 2nd, 2006 at 5:05 pm

Multimedias.mobi » Will Lickety Ship End Differently Than Kozmo?

December 23rd, 2006 at 2:01 am

Comments

RSS feed for comments on this post.

B. Dixon

September 27th, 2006 at 10:00 am

Great Concept/service! I wouldn’t mind something like this on the east coast. My only question how scalable this service is…….
johnrob

September 27th, 2006 at 10:12 am

I love this concept from a convenience point of view. HOWEVER, there are serious cost issues here. Normally, in store items are priced higher than web order items because the in store items have to be warehoused and shelved by the merchant. LicketyShip is going to add an additional shipping cost on top of the warehouse cost. Unless I am overlooking something, there is going to be a serious premium when you compare traditional online ordering vs. LicketyShip.
M. Sizlak

September 27th, 2006 at 10:16 am

Does anybody else think that $19.99 shipping is hella expensive, 4 hour delivery or not?
M. Sizlak

September 27th, 2006 at 10:17 am

I agree with johnrob. Get things shipped overnight and you might actually save money while not waiting that much longer.
Richard White

September 27th, 2006 at 10:26 am

Just as there is a market for BMWs and Mercedes there too will be a market for rapid delivery even if it means an extra 20 dollars over what the web price is. I know there are many times I fret over the cost of something, but if you need it right away and you’re billing at $100/hr it makes no sense not to use a service like this.
Mathew

September 27th, 2006 at 11:46 am

. . . and they will operate a fleet of pink vans, too.
Frank Cefalu

September 27th, 2006 at 11:47 am

Users will always go for the cheaper price Richard. If they wanted more expensive ventures they would do same -day ship from any website. People surf the web for deals. Not to get clobberd by fees. Lesson learned from Ebay in China my friend.
Roger Jing

September 27th, 2006 at 11:54 am

I am intrigued by their promise to deliver 150 lbs. of goods for $19.99. That is MUCH cheaper than Fedex and UPS overnight.

I just paid amazon $60 last week to deliver a laser printer overnight, and it still didn’t arrive for 2 days.

LicketyShip should do a better job of promoting this offer. It wasn’t immediately apparent to me. Had I known about it, I definitely would have chosen them over amazon .
Theo

September 27th, 2006 at 12:12 pm

Nice! Although $19.99 may be a bit much for an everyday consumer. I’m currently working on something along the same lines. I’ll be sure to keep Techcrunch posted.
Isaac Garcia

September 27th, 2006 at 12:36 pm

Is it just me or is this the same thing as the travesty called “Kosmo” back in the late 90s?

This will never fly.
Isaac Garcia

September 27th, 2006 at 12:37 pm

Is it just me or is this the same thing as the travesty called “Kosmo” back in the late 90s?

This will never fly. I’ve seen this movie already.
B. Wahl

September 27th, 2006 at 1:04 pm

It seems a little different than Kozmo (man I loved them!). It looks like these guys are sourcing product from local stores and using 3rd party couriers instead of doing it all themselves.

It actually makes a lot of sense to me, I should have thought of this. Maybe the most practical mashup I’ve heard of so far…

My question is how do they know what inventory the stores have? This sounds complicated.
Vik

September 27th, 2006 at 1:30 pm

This service should be called “LazityShip” as it is clearly designed for the lazy people. But the problem with their biz model is that lazy people are usually the poor people. So not sure if many of the people who would want to use this service would have the money to pay for this service

I know, I know, you are thinking that busy professionals may also want to use this service. I’m a 1st year associate at a law firm and yes, even I had the time to stop by Target last Friday and purachase my Xbox360. And hey, it was only for $399 + tax, not $399 + tax + $19.99. And, I didn’t even have to wait for four hours
einar

September 27th, 2006 at 1:39 pm

kozmo a travesty? if you were an investor/employee than yes, but if you were a customer they were the greatest! nothing like ordering up a video game rental and some beers (when they were testing alcohol delivery) and going for a short run to pass the time until.
Ryan Bloom

September 27th, 2006 at 1:43 pm

@Vik. I think you’re right on this - even I would usually have time to hit the store, and I’m a banking analyst

But I guess I’ve ordered my share of stuff online for overnight delivery. In those cases, it was easier for me to order online than walk into the store, even though I knew where I could probably find what I needed.

There are some times when I might not mind paying a premium for delivery. And if its cheaper than overnight, its not even a question for me.
dave

September 27th, 2006 at 2:13 pm

the search definitely needs improvement. search for samsung t809 returns me everything about samsung.
Daniel

September 27th, 2006 at 2:56 pm

$19.99? that’s going to go down. Would $10 be worth it to many people? Let’s see… 1+ hour round trip, or $10 delivered? I would likely pay that much for a same-day book delivery.
Garth

September 27th, 2006 at 3:38 pm

Their costs are probably going to be close to the price they are charging, so going to $10 is pretty much impossible without massive scale.

Courier services are at least $10 a stop, more for many locations, and they don’t like residential.

Courier services want routes that they can count on like weekly pickups at the same location, many different residential deliveries with short notice is going to be low margin for the couriers and many will opt out.
Richard Peete

September 27th, 2006 at 3:42 pm

Nik - from what I can tell, it looks like they accept orders up until 7pm on weekdays. So I assume they would deliver all the way up to 11pm.

Plus, its already after 3pm and the site still seems to be operating normally.

Found the info on: http://www.licketyship.com/about_us.php
Ryan Bloom

September 27th, 2006 at 3:53 pm

Heehee! I bought an ipod nano for my sister and it arrived at my desk in perfect condition in 2 hours flat — not bad… I’m a believer
carlo

September 27th, 2006 at 3:55 pm

I could take a cab to get any of this crap (at a more discount price) for cheaper than $19.99. What was the identified need for this service? It’s not even niche.
Brian

September 27th, 2006 at 4:07 pm

I personally think $19.99 is a great deal for this service. Typically, overnight shipping on items cost much more.

Why aren’t people comparing LicketyShip to Fedex overnight?
Arjun

September 27th, 2006 at 4:53 pm

This is great for kids without cars who want stuff fast.
Mike C

September 27th, 2006 at 5:09 pm

Kids can afford to pay $19.99 !?!?!?!?
carlo

September 27th, 2006 at 5:14 pm

“Why aren’t people comparing LicketyShip to Fedex overnight?”

Because the success of this model is based on an assumption of immediate need that that product offerings don’t really back up. I could understand if this was like perscription refill delivery or something that was time sensitive but what can I purchase on this site at retail that I couldn’t drive, be driven, bike, or walk to get?
Jeff R.

September 27th, 2006 at 5:58 pm

“What can I purchase on this site that I couldn’t drive, be driven, bike or walk to get?”

This is just stupid. You could make this argument for anything. The bottom line is that people who could buy stuff at local stores buy online anyway because it’s more CONVENIENT, and they care less about the price than the convenience of not having to go to the store.

I for one buy almost everything online, usually delivered overnight. When I needed a monitor last week, I shopped at TigerDirect, and I paid tham $75 to ship it overnight! Sure, I COULD have driven to Fry’s and saved some money, but why bother??? I just don’t have the time for that.

And to the idiot who says you can just get in a cab???? Are you kidding me? When was the last time you took a cab just to pickup print toner?? You’d pay $10 EACH WAY for a 5 mile ride, plus you’d have to wait in lines, wait for the cabs both ways…. that just doesnt make sense. Why don’t you just take the bus? That’s MUCH cheaper, and SOOOOOOO convenient

I’m thrilled that someone is giving same day delivery a shot again. At $20, they beat overnight delivery almost every time. I just hope they figured out the revenue model so they don’t die the familiar death of kozmos and urbanfetches past…
Frank Cefalu

September 27th, 2006 at 9:43 pm

Jeff R. The guy that said take a cab probably lives in NYC, Chicago or LA where cabs are plentiful and costs only about 3.50 to get to a staples.
Jeff R.

September 27th, 2006 at 11:04 pm

Frank - I dare you to find a cab ANYWHERE that costs $3.50 to get to a Staples. I looked it up:

CHI is $2.25 + $1.80/mi. Assume there’s a staples within 5 miles of you and NO traffic (dream on). You’re looking at $11.25 EACH WAY!

In NYC its worse. $2.50 + $2.00/mi. That’s $12.50 each way with no traffic (yea right).

In LA, holy crap. It’s so spread out you’d be lucky to find a staples within 20 miles, and freeways resemeble parking lots. Assuming the drive-bys don’t get you, its $2.00 + $2.00/mi. = $12.00 each way.

Of course there are all kinds of public transport options, subway, walking, hitchiking, whatever. At the end of the day, this boils down to a $20 convenience tax. And my point is, when compared to the other options out there, $20 isn’t that bad.

There are millions of people like me who pay through the nose for overnight shipping, and don’t really think twice about it. I’d pay $20 for same-day in a second becuase I’m already paying about the same for slower service. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to waste my day in a cab, bus, or rickshaw running all over the city to find a card reader or a flash drive. But hey, that’s just me
Xavier Helgesen

September 28th, 2006 at 12:16 am

People! I know we’re reading a blog so our time can’t be that valuable - but time is money for a lot of people and companies.

How many tech companies send their $100K+ engineers over to Best Buy every day because their laptop just blew up and they need a new one?

How many execs work 80 hours a week and don’t exactly feel like taking a cab to Staples to buy toner?

How many startups need routers, toner, printers, flash drives and laptops on an almost daily basis? Do you really want to grind everything to a halt while the CEO hails a rickshaw?

There have been a lot of times in my career where I would have paid a lot more than $19 to have the thing I need immediately. Although this service certainly provides value to consumers, its true value proposition is to businesses: your employees are too expensive to send on shopping trips in the middle of the day and overnight is simply too long a wait (and often more expensive!). I wouldn’t be surprised if Lickety will become a staple of half the startups in the Valley.
kash

September 28th, 2006 at 2:41 am

yeah! it might be great service if im able to see this site up and running
Frank Cefalu

September 28th, 2006 at 6:59 am

A mile in manhattan is a long distance lol. You’d be surprised. And the taxis make money off the inital fare. And it only costs me 5.50 round trip to get something from staples. Which is between Madison and 5th Ave on 33rdst Midtown from 45 St and Park Ave.

Also Xavier. A tech company with 100k employees has a tech department or an affilated company they work with to upgrade software and equipment all the time. They wont order from LicketyShip. Please.
Frank Cefalu

September 28th, 2006 at 7:01 am

I should also add hitch hiking isnt a preffered way of travel ^_^.
Harshal Vaidya

September 28th, 2006 at 10:30 am

I dont think this will take off.