PepsiCo Begins Delivering Snacks and Drinks Directly to Consumers

With more consumers turning to online ordering to avoid going to stores during the Covid-19 pandemic, PepsiCo wanted to “offer shoppers another alternative for easy and fast access to products they love,” the company’s svp and head of ecommerce, Gibu Thomas, said in a statement.

The first, PantryShop.com, offers seven themed multi-product “pantry kits,” each including items from categories like breakfast, snacking, workout or hydration. The kits come in two different sizes, and standard delivery is free.

The second site, Snacks.com, touts a wide variety of Frito-Lay brands—largely chips, crackers and nuts—that can be delivered to your door. There’s a $15 minimum purchase, and the delivery charge is waived as an introductory offer. More items will continue to be added to the site in the coming months.

“We’ve seen incredibly strong demand for our snacks during this time,” said Michael Lindsey, chief transformation and strategy officer for Frito-Lay North America. “Snacks.com offers consumers another way to purchase the products they love, delivered right to their door.”

Online shopping has skyrocketed under shelter-in-place orders due to the coronavirus pandemic. Even as economies across the country and around the world begin to reopen, industry executives are predicting that the shift to ecommerce will endure, noting that the pandemic only accelerated a change in consumer habits that was already underway.

The news is notable particularly because conglomerates including PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Unilever and Procter & Gamble typically sell products almost entirely through wholesale channels such as grocery stores and restaurants. Analysts have also noted that Covid-19 has been a bit of a wake-up call for brands that were slow to transition to ecommerce—and that for some companies, it might be too late to catch up. PepsiCo’s new websites seem like an attempt to do just that.

The sites were created—from concept to execution—in less than 30 days, the company said. PepsiCo’s ecommerce team developed PantryShop.com entirely in-house, and most items from both websites will be delivered within two days, according to the company.