International retail & food-to-go update

Pick n Pay’s digital voucher scheme looks a good one to learn from (in the style of Amazon gift cards for grocery), while look out later today for a new report from Peter Rigney at Tap Creations and myself on what covid-19 could mean for store environments.

UK market growth at 9% in the past 12 weeks 

Co-op, Ocado, Iceland and Lidl grew fastest. Sainsbury’s and Tesco both outperformed Morrisons and Asda. In the figures, provided by Kantar, a point to note was the reduction in the number of shopping trips per week, down from 17 to 14.  Kantar also highlighted a 40% uplift in the measures it tracks via convenience symbol group and independent stores, but did caution that this excludes grab and go missions which will inevitably have fallen sharply. 

Tesco hits 1m online deliveries in a week 

Online has been much in demand over recent weeks, and Tesco has been at the forefront of retailers expanding capacity to service this heightened requirement.  It has hired 4,000 new drivers and 12,000 new pickers since the start of the crisis.

Aldi UK introduces a digital voucher scheme

Vouchers can be bought online and then sent to any UK address. Blue vouchers cover everything on offer in-store (except lottery), orange vouchers exclude alcohol and lottery.  Both can be purchased in £5 or £10 increments.

While in South Africa, Pick n Pay launches digital grocery vouchers

This is particularly relevant in a market in which high proportions of the customer base don’t have bank accounts. Customers buy a digital grocery voucher online or in-store, and then this is shared with the recipient via SMS or email that provides a unique voucher code which can then be used to pay for purchases. Separately Pick n Pay has been working with alcohol delivery app Bottles, with both parties working together to add essential grocery items to the app.

Home delivery introduced at AF Blakemore

This has been introduced to 165 of its company-owned stores, to help vulnerable customers in local communities, with orders taken over the phone. At the same time it has also been trialling online ordering app Snappy Shopper in four of its stores, seeing potential to roll this out to 250 stores. This is typically a same day delivery operation, giving customers a range of over 1,000 lines to choose from.

Reopenings: Wagamama & Nando’s test the new delivery waters

Wagamama will open two London delivery kitchens as a precursor to further reopenings, while Nando’s, having reopened six sites solely to provide NHS meals last week, is expanding this to cover delivery. Five Guys has also reopened more sites – it now has 20 sites open for delivery and click & collect. McDonald’s has also begun its reopening process, but so far only for operational tests rather than reopening to the public.

Keep safe and feel free to share.