It has been two decades since the launch of Amazon Prime, and the beginning of rapid online delivery—and there’s no going back.
That’s according to Michael Peroutka, head of ads and partnerships with the online convenience retail and last-mile delivery company Gopuff, who spoke Monday at CSP’s and NexChapter’s Retail Media Network Forum in Dallas.
“Instant gratification is here to stay, and convenience is going to play a very, very big role,” Peroutka said.
He told c-store leaders that purchase data is “the most available data out there—end of story.”
“And so we as retailers really need to figure out how we can maximize that for our partners, for better experiences, for consumers and shoppers. That is ultimately what we want to do,” he said.
Gopuff, which reaches about 30% of the U.S. population through its presence in college towns and major cities, is positioning itself as a uniquely agile and infrastructure-rich player in the space, he said.
“Storefronts in the front and micro-fulfillment centers in the back,” Peroutka said. “We have the infrastructure. That’s one of our superpowers that the Instacarts, the DoorDashes, the Ubers of the world do not have.”
His comments underscore the rapid evolution of retail media networks (RMNs), a space where Gopuff sees major opportunity, but also significant challenges. According to Peroutka, brands are struggling to keep up with the fragmented digital retail landscape.
“Brands cannot and do not want to buy across 200-plus retail media networks. It is impossible,” he said. “The economics do not allow it.”
Retail media is proving to be a lucrative business. Walmart, for example, reported that a full third of its operating profit now comes from Walmart Connect, its retail media platform—despite it being less than a decade old, Peroutka said.
Peroutka sees Gopuff’s hybrid model as especially powerful when aligned with cultural trends and media moments. He pointed to a recent campaign with Tums during the Super Bowl as an example of next-level contextual commerce.
Viewers could go to a website during the halftime show and get a free bottle of Tums delivered to their door in as fast as 15 minutes—right when overindulgence hit.
“We basically took something that might have been an end cap in a store, and we brought it into the digital space,” he said.
And Gopuff knows its audience well. Roughly 80% of its shoppers are between the ages of 18 and 34, with peak ordering times happening late at night—often just before customers stream TV or movies, according to Peroutka said.
“We’re reaching those consumers in their home at night when they’re about to stream some content,” Peroutka said. “We have an audience, we have a time of day, and we have a service. The right ad, the right place, the right time.”
The future, he argues, is more seamless integration between media and commerce.
“I do think sooner than later, you’ll be watching Disney or Netflix or Max or Apple TV+, and right before the movie starts, it’ll say: ‘Hey, do you want to grab some popcorn or candy?’ And you’ll be able to order directly from that movie. We’re not there today, but that’s where we’re going,” he said
For Gopuff, it’s not just about delivering snacks. It’s about tapping into trends the moment they emerge.
When pop-star Dua Lipa went viral on TikTok last year touting her favorite drink—a mix of Diet Coke, jalapeños, and pickles—Gopuff saw a surge in searches for those items almost instantly.
“We want to be agile. When things go trending, we see that immediate spike,” Peroutka said.
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