EUROPE – French retail Carrefour has announced that its grocery delivery partnership with Deliveroo will be now expanded to include stores in France.
The partnership will enable the French retailer to deliver on-demand groceries in less than 30 minutes to their customers’ homes.
The service is already available in Belgium, Italy, and Spain. It will available in Paris with plans for a rollout to 10 other top cities over the coming months.
Meanwhile the rollout is picking up speed in Belgium with the extension of the service to Antwerp in April and then in Ghent in May, following Brussels and Liege on March 5.
Delievery partnerships a saviour to retailers
Retailers have been increasingly teaming up with delivery firms to service stuck at home customers during lockdowns triggered by the coronavirus.
Retailers are also looking for new and creative ways to shorten every step of the purchasing process to compete with e-commerce platforms such as Amazon which offer ultra-convenient offerings like same-day shipping.
Amazon has for instance pushed numerous retailers, from Asos to the recently defunct Jetblack, to push for same-day deliveries, but reducing friction comes at a price.
A representative from Postmates, which launched in 2011 as a restaurant delivery service, said that the company saw more than 200% year-over-year increase in retail partners in 2019 alone, with some of the largest partners in apparel, including Walmart and Shopify.
Last year, Carrefour struck a deal with Uber Eats for a home delivery partnership in France and in Belgium, also offering 30-minute home delivery.
Italy has already rolled out the service to 50 major cities while in Spain Carrefour has been in a partnership with Deliveroo since spring 2020.
A lifeline for delivery platforms
The partnership is not only offering a lifeline to brick and mortar supermarkets trying to wade off competition from e-commerce platforms but also offering a lifeline to delivery platforms too.
Uber is for instance facing a huge drop in demand for its existing services, as people cut down on non-essential travel and many restaurants are forced to close.
Uber Eats has since embarked on launching a series of partnerships with supermarkets, convenience stores, and other businesses to offer home deliveries of essential items.
The Financial Times reports that the company is working with Galp in Spain to deliver items from 25 petrol station convenience stores, and in Brazil it’s offering deliveries from local pharmacies, pet shops, and convenience stores.
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