Kroger Co. has expanded its new home-delivery service known as Ship to yet another new market, as supermarkets battle for an edge in the home delivery business.

Cincinnati-based Kroger (NYSE: KR), the nation’s largest operator of traditional supermarkets, has expanded Ship to its Mid-Atlantic region, which includes stores in Virginia, West Virginia and in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. It initially launched the online delivery service for groceries and household items in Cincinnati, Louisville, Houston and Nashville on Aug. 1. It added its Atlanta division three weeks later. It's now offered in each Kroger store division. The company will soon add its non-Kroger store divisions, such as Harris Teeter, Ralphs, Fry's and others, Kroger spokeswoman Kristal Howard told me.

Ship enables customers to shop online for any of 4,500 products under Kroger’s own store brands, which it calls Our Brands, that are not available elsewhere online. They can also choose from more than 50,000 nonperishable products – so-called “center store” products on shelves rather than fresh, refrigerated or frozen items – that consist of groceries and household items. Kroger said it will add products to the lineup of offerings in the future.

Kroger uses its 84.51° data analytics firm’s insights to select the products it’s making available through Kroger Ship.

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