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Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has partnered with four different companies — Uber, Shipt, Postmates, Roadie and software provider Delivery Solutions — to launch same-day delivery across its entire U.S. store fleet, including its Abercrombie & Fitch, Abercrombie Kids, Hollister and Gilly Hicks banners.

The same-day offer will apply to all apparel inventory from a customer’s local stores. A “Get It Fast” filter on each brand’s website takes browsers to their local store to find available products.

The same-day option complements online pick-up in store, curbside pickup, in-store reserve, ship from store and traditional parcel home delivery.

“Adding same-day delivery to our portfolio increases our final mile delivery capacity and further diversifies our carrier base, where we were already leveraging regional parcel carriers, UPS, FedEx, and now, couriers,” Larry Grischow, EVP of supply chain and procurement, told Barron’s.

The retailer is working to assure same-day delivery does not impact its in-store inventory levels amid ongoing supply chain constraints. Mr. Grischow told Barron’s, “We’re positioning more inventory in stores and routing more e-commerce orders to stores.”

A test of delivery from a local Abercrombie & Fitch location found same-day delivery costing $10, well below $22 for next-day delivery, $15 for two-day delivery and just above the $7 standard charge (four to nine- business days). Free shipping is provided for orders over $75.

Same-day delivery received a boost during the pandemic as grocery e-commerce took off. Instacart also expanded same-day options for Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bed Bath & Beyond, Sephora, 7-Eleven and other non-grocery chains as consumers sought omnichannel solutions.

In August, Amazon.com expanded same-day Prime delivery to 12 cities, adding Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Tampa, Charlotte and Houston.

DoorDash, Uber Eats and Target-owned Shipt also support same-day delivery.

Macy’s, Nordstrom, Saks and Belks have all added same-day options at some or all locations, but same-day delivery from internal mall-based chains remains rare. In June, American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) partnered with FedEx-owned ShopRunner to bring same-day delivery to most major cities for a $10 fee.

Michael Rempell, AEO’s EVP and COO, said in a statement at the time, “AEO’s approach is customer-centric — we leave it to our customers to choose where, when and how they engage and shop with us.”

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