Rosie’s recent growth addresses growing delivery demand

Earlier this month, Rosie, an Ithaca-based grocery e-commerce provider for independent grocers, announced that it had completed a $10 million round of Series A financing, led by growth capital firm Avenue Growth Partners based in Washington, D.C. The new capital is already helping Rosie to address the growing demand for grocery delivery caused by the pandemic.

In a recent press release, Rosie said the new capital will be deployed in a number of ways, including introducing new features and tools to improve shoppers’ and retailers’ experience; launching new products that streamline the ordering process for shoppers at home, in store or on the go; investing in monetization opportunities to increase retailer profitability; and helping connect consumer packaged goods brands of all sizes to customers shopping online from local retailers.

The investment comes after a big year of growth for Rosie since the pandemic hit, when it saw a 900% increase in stores signed compared to pre-pandemic numbers. As Rosie Chief Customer Officer Dave Makar explained, demand for grocery delivery spiked once the pandemic hit and has remained at increased levels.

“A lot of people have tried online shopping for the first time in the last 12 months, and many of them, even when they could come back to their stores, they continue to shop online,” he said. “A lot of people live in communities where their store had Rosie as an option for online shopping, but they didn’t know that it even existed until the pandemic. And then, once they started using it, they’re like, ‘I wish I knew this was here before. I love using this. It’s so great.’”

Makar detailed some of the biggest changes Rosie’s made in the past year to meet the growing demand.

“We’ve delivered a lot more services and we built a lot more software,” he said. “We released software more than twice a week every week for the last year, over 100 releases. … It makes it easier to use for grocery stores, makes it easier to use for shoppers. It makes it more efficient to operate as a grocer, and it allows Rosie to go after larger chains.”

Rosie recently launched more features that give retailers “full autonomy over their ecommerce program,” according to the release, which allows for more at-home dining options. In addition, Rosie has hired more employees to work on software development, operations and customer service, Makar said.

That growth was a big factor in Rosie’s successful Series A financing, Makar explained. Once the $10 million was reached, deciding where to spend the funds was an easy decision.

“We said, ‘if we want to provide the best platform for grocers, for grocery stores, for supermarkets, we need to have more features,’ which means you have to have more technology [and] team members to build the features that will make this a platform that even more retailers will want to use,” Makar said.

In the few weeks since Rosie’s announcement, the company has already used some of the funds to hire more people, with the goal of hiring 40 additional employees in total.

Another area of expected change is the implementation of SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as EBT or food stamps — across the country with Rosie retailers in the next few months.

“This is huge,” Makar said. “About 8% of all food purchased is purchased with SNAP. SNAP was a huge part of the overall … $56 billion [worth] of groceries sold in 2019. And most SNAP retailers are independent grocers, which is the type of grocers that we work with. We have a huge focus on helping shoppers who have SNAP as well as retailers who want to participate in SNAP.”

While the upcoming growth for Rosie is a nationwide effort, Makar said Rosie wants most of that growth to be local. He said that since its founding in 2013, Rosie has remained locally focused, which didn’t change when COVID-19 hit. During the pandemic, about half of new hires have been from Tompkins County or surrounding areas.

“As we grow, as we hire, we’re looking nationwide for candidates for jobs, but there are a lot of great local candidates who are applying that we have hired,” he said. “So, I imagine we’ll continue to keep the pace of hiring here in the county.”

Rosie continues to serve local grocers like P&C Fresh in Ithaca and T-burg Shur-Save in Trumansburg. And future improvements in Rosie’s checkout process are expected to help locals get the groceries they need more easily.

“After they build their cart, they go to the checkout lane, one click and they’re done,” Makar said. “It uses their previous shopping experience to help them with their next shopping experience online. So, if they do curbside, it will default to curbside. If they like to use their Visa card, it will default the Visa card. If they like the next available pickup slot, it’ll choose that one. It just saves everything.”

Makar said local feedback on Rosie’s efforts has been positive all around, from business leaders to consumers, which speaks to Rosie’s focus on the county.

“We’re just really excited about building this company here in Tompkins County,” he said. “It’s a great place to live, great place to work. The community is very supportive of the people and the company. And we work with locally owned small businesses. We feel it’s a really great fit for us as a company to be here.”

For more information about Rosie and its services, visit rosieapp.com.