The co-op has announced a new collaboration with same-day house shipment professional, Gophr, in Scotland.
Over the last 18 months, Co-op has gone from a grocer without an online delivery service to one with numerous fulfilment partnerships throughout the UK. The Gophr tie-up involves 6 shops in Glasgow, but the strategy is to roll out the service to 50 shops throughout Scottish cities such as Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Inverness, and Perth in the weeks ahead.
It follows the extension of home shipment via autonomous delivery in Milton Keynes in the summertime, and brand-new partnerships with fulfillment experts such as Deliveroo and Pinga, in addition to last year’s launch of an electric bike-based delivery service to support the launch of its core online shopping business.
Gophr can make shipments within 4km of the participating shops in as little as 2 hours, with consumers able to make their order through Co-op’s online store. The Glasgow Co-op shops associated with the initial pilot are based at 139 Sauchiehall Street; 1517 Paisley Roadway West, Cardonald; 114 Cumbernauld Roadway, Muirhead; 63 Cumbernauld Roadway, Stepps; 1158 Shettleston Road (G32); and 171-177 Baillieston Roadway, Barrachnie.
Grocery items are selected by Co-op colleagues in the regional shops, which function as micro-distribution centers for the online service. These shops are likewise offering click & & gather.
Matt Arrigonie, an online operations supervisor at Co-op, stated: “We continue to search for new methods to innovate and broaden access to our services and products to deliver a truly compelling offer for consumers, easily.
“By collaborating with partners, we can offer more versatility and choice to meet neighborhood requirements for shopping locally with ease, speed, and safety.”
The 2020 version of the Associated of Benefit Stores (ACS) Local Store Report, published in September, discovered that the benefits sector now supplies over 600,000 home deliveries a week, with half of the c-stores now offering ‘card not present’ payments. The enhanced digitization of convenience selling is one clear effect of the coronavirus crisis, as shops have adapted to serve local neighborhoods in special situations.