Tractor Supply Company (TSCO 0.23%) has a new selling posture. The rural lifestyle retailer announced on Tuesday that it now offers same-day delivery from its entire store network. The company had been aggressively expanding its fulfillment options before COVID-19, but the pandemic accelerated its efforts to make its catalog available for quick delivery across its 1,900 locations.

"Now more than ever before," Executive Vice President John Ordus said in a press release, "our customers are depending on us to get them their essential goods in a timely manner so they can continue to take care of their families, homes, land, pets, and animals."

A farm with horses grazing.

Image source: Getty Images.

Tractor Supply leaned heavily on outside help by partnering with delivery specialist Roadie to add same-day services to 80% of its stores since the pandemic started impacting customer traffic. "Not only did Tractor Supply need to ramp up service in almost exclusively rural markets," said Roadie CEO Marc Gorlin, "but in this crisis they needed to do it in a matter of days, not months."

Tractor Supply celebrated the fact that the new service makes it the first retailer of its kind to offer same-day delivery across its entire national network. Investors will learn in its upcoming earnings report, set for April 23, about the financial trade-offs to partnering with an outside service over building its capabilities from scratch.