NEW YORK CITY — From the Upper East Side to Williamsburg, delivery company names are plastered on subway turnstiles, bike docks, bus shelters and backpacks of cycling couriers zooming by. The delivery company promises to deliver milk, frozen pizzas, diapers, and other online orders to your door in no time.

New York City is now a hub for testing ultrafast delivery companies. Gopuff, a pioneer in the “instant needs” category, Launched Wednesday in New York City. In the past months, several international players including Russia-born Buyk, and Berlin-based Gorillas have made their debuts in the city. More are expected, such as Turkey’s Getir.

The bet is the same: customers want to buy their goods quicker and from home. They still need to show that they are able to stand out from the crowd and make a profit.

“When?” AmazonTwo-day Prime was released [delivery]Yakir Gola (co-founder and coCEO) of Gopuff said that “that was the most groundbreaking thing.” People want it within 20 minutes. It will be available in 5-10 minutes. You have to innovate because people value time.

The companies could challenge grocers, drugstores, convenience stores and big-box retailers — especially those in dense, urban markets. Many companies have developed ways for people to buy online faster. WalmartYou can get your order within 2 hours. TargetOwns a fast-growing company same-day delivery service Shipt.Also Ulta BeautyAnd LVMHSephora recently purchased -owned announced plans for same-day deliveryYou can find lotions, lipsticks and other beauty products in select markets.

Laura Kennedy from CB Insights is a retail analyst. She said that if ultrafast delivery companies gain more customers they can chip away at competitor’s baskets and decrease shoppers’ trips into the store. It was already the case when people ordered just one item from Amazon.

It adds up and it then adds up not only to wallet share, mindshare,” she stated. It’s “death by a thousand cuts”

This wave of companies operates differently to third-party delivery service like Instacart. DoorDashAnd UberEats — and act more like retailers.

There are many “dark shops” in the area. These stores look like mini warehouses that can be accessed from central points to make quick delivery to various parts of the city. Although the stores are not open to customers, they have aisles full of fresh fruits and vegetables and coolers stocked with milk and yogurt, as well shelves filled with snack items.

Pickers take items from the shelves when a customer presses the “buy” button. A fleet of delivery workers — some who are gig workers and some who are employees, depending on the company — strap on a backpack and pedal to the customer in as little as 10 or 15 minutes after the purchase is made.

Slava Bocharov from Buyk stated that delivery is faster than ever and has changed the way people shop. Instead of stocking up on a week or two of groceries, people can buy what they need in the moment — such as fresh fruit, a loaf of bread or a single steak.

Buyk, a U.S.-based subsidiary of Samokat (a St. Petersburg-based delivery firm), was established in 2018. The company launched last month in New York City and has plans to expand into Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Boston.

Bocharov stated that the company operates approximately 800 dark shops in over 25 cities, and receives about 7,000,000 orders per month. Bocharov said that some Russian customers don’t own a fridge and use the service for the perishable goods they require each day.

According to him, the company wants grocery shopping as easy as turning on the tap.

He said, via a Russian translator, “We are building the pipeline with goods which means that you can have easy and continuous access goods without having to stock up on products like it does with water at home.”

Alina Pedraza is an Area Manager for Buyk Manhattan. She said that she’s seen the new method take root in her family. As her needs change, she places orders, including for flour and berries, to bake pancakes, or soup for the family’s dinner.

She stated that time is the most important thing people can give others.

It coronavirus pandemicCB Insight’s Kennedy stated that the conditions were perfect for ultrafast delivery businesses.

Online shopping was embraced by consumers as an easy and safe alternative to traditional retail. The rise in vacancies as well as a temporary drop in rents for commercial spaces in high-priced cities like New York City enabled companies to sign leases with landlords on more favorable terms.

Investors have invested money in the businesses after noticing changing trends. According to CB Insights (which tracks start-up and private company funding), Gopuff received the second-largest round of venture financing in this category. Tuesday was the Gorillas’ announcement a nearly $1 billion round of fundingThe round was led Germany’s Delivery Hero. Other companies, such as Jokr from Jokr or Barcelona-based Glovo in Spain and Glovo in Germany, have also raised rounds exceeding $170 million.

CB Insights reports that funding for dark convenience stores has increased by more than fivefold in just two years, to $5.76 trillion as of mid October. This comes against a backdrop of high interest in retail technology. This is despite the fact that funding in this sector has shot up to $82.5Billion thus far in 2018, a dramatic increase on $51.1Billion in 2019 compared with $47.9Billion in 2020.

Plus, Kennedy said, even before the global health crisis, shoppers already expected faster deliveries — a race she credits AmazonStart here.

Kennedy declared that the expectation of speedy and convenient service is unsurpassed.

The venture-backed, ultrafast delivery startups must demonstrate that they have the ability to create a sustainable business model that both wins customers and generates income.

It [the market]Kennedy stated that the market is saturated, and might be considered too broad. You are simply flooding the market. “How does anyone stand out from this?”

Kennedy indicated that Gopuff had shown the potential for this to happen. Since its inception in 2013, the company has grown to over 1,000 locations in Europe and the U.S. To accelerate international growth, it recently purchased Dija and Fancy two European delivery businesses.

She stated that she anticipates greater consolidation as companies fail and some succeed.