Target-owned Shipt grocery delivery offers dietary preferences options

Grocery delivery company Shipt is further customizing its grocery delivery service, allowing customers to save dietary preferences through the Target-owned company's app or website.

Shipt said on Thursday that the dietary preferences were starting immediately, including allowing customers to note if they are on a particular diet such as Keto or Atkins, or if they are vegan or pescatarian. Customers also will be able to note if they want organic or gluten-free items.

The company says it is the first nationwide grocery delivery service to let customers save their preferences to their accounts.

"This feature helps customers easily use Shipt while maintaining their lifestyle preferences," said Karl Varsanyi, chief experience and product officer at Shipt. "We know that Shipt shoppers are the gateway to personalization and Shipt's new dietary preferences feature helps them get to know customers better and make that personalization even stronger."

Once customers save preferences to their profile, Shipt will tag products that match their preferences. Workers then can see the preferences while completing orders to double-check items and to use if they need to search for substitutions.

During the pandemic as stay-at-home orders and safety concerns restricted people's in-store shopping, the grocery delivery industry boomed. An Instacart survey of around 2,000 U.S. adults conducted by the Harris Poll found nearly half have ordered groceries online during the pandemic.

It remains to be seen how many of those customers will continue to have their groceries delivered as many COVID-19 restrictions have lifted and Americans have started to return to their normal shopping habits.

Shipt has about 300,000 independent contractors.