Waitrose has announced that it is expanding its partnership with Deliveroo to meet “strong customer demand” for rapid grocery deliveries.
By the summer, 70 more Waitrose sites will utilise the Deliveroo service to offer customers deliveries in as little as 20 minutes. This will take the total to over 220 Waitrose stores – more than two-thirds of the supermarket’s estate.
Waitrose highlighted that its partnership with Deliveroo was attracting new customers with almost a third of monthly orders from people who have never shopped with the supermarket brand before. Top-selling items include avocados, blueberries, sourdough bread and milk.
The next phase of the expansion means Waitrose will be available for the first time on Deliveroo in almost 30 new towns and cities, including Lewes, Cirencester and Newark, where the service will be live from today. It comes a year after the partnership was rolled out to 150 Waitrose stores following a trial at five sites in 2020.
Waitrose is also currently trialling Deliveroo Hop, the rapid delivery service that brings groceries to customers’ doors in as little as ten minutes, in Bermondsey in London.
“Our partnership with Deliveroo shows the strong demand for Waitrose products and that this is one of the ways our customers want to shop with us,” said James Bailey, Executive Director for Waitrose.
“People’s plans change and the service ensures we are even more flexible around our customer’s lifestyle, giving them more freedom to be more spontaneous about what they eat or drink and when.”
A raft of new firms, including Getir, Gopuff, and Gorillas, are offering deliveries within minutes of ordering, prompting traditional supermarket groups to rethink their business models. They are also becoming competition to independent convenience stores due to the speed and ease of their service in local areas.
Last month, Morrisons teamed up with Gopuff to further expand its presence in the rapid grocery delivery market. And last October, Tesco partnered with Gorillas in an arrangement that saw the German start-up open micro-fulfilment sites at five Tesco stores, with orders delivered by e-bike within minutes.
