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With home delivery the biggest opportunity to hit convenience retailing in decades, S on the banks of Loch Lomond to discuss the m
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here have been many consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, some good and some not so good. Probably the biggest opportunity, however, has been the massive upsurge in the popularity of home delivery. And it’s fair to say that home delivery presents perhaps the biggest opportunity in living memory for local retailers to turbocharge their businesses and very quickly grow sales and profits. With that in mind, SLR and The Week In Retail hooked up with Dundee-based home delivery specialists Snappy Shopper last month to invite a select group of top local retailers and other industry insiders to a working lunch to discuss the ins and outs of home delivery. Not every retailer attending the session offers the service and in his introductory remarks The Week In Retail Publishing Director Antony Begley pointed out that while providing a home delivery service unquestionably involves hard work, it can have a transformational effect on businesses for remarkably little risk or financial outlay. He cited award-winning Londis retailer Natalie Lightfoot, who frequently says home delivery is the best thing she’s ever done in her store on the outskirts of Glasgow. It’s certainly the case that basket spends tend to be much bigger – typically north of £26 – and with no indication that demand for the service is slowing post-Covid, it’s important to get in there before your competition. Begley said this
AROUND T would be a “big win,” since customers are very reluctant to change suppliers once they have a solution they are happy with. Getting in first, then, is half the battle.
CATCHING THE WAVE Snappy Shopper is the major player in home delivery in Scotland and the business has grown in tandem with the explosion of the market, as David Thomson, the company’s UK Independent Sales Controller explained. Industry veteran Thomson joined Snappy in January 2020, just two months
12 I SLRMAG.CO.UK / ISSUE 94 / WEDNESDAY 2ND MARCH 2022
● Irfan Bashir, Premier Group NJ ● Antony Begley, SLR ● Jim Carroll, One Stop ● David Fair, Snappy Shopper ● Barry Hanif, Nisa ● Matthew Howie, Nisa Retail ● Jay Javid, Premier Group NJ ● Saj Javid, Premier Group NJ
before the start of the first national lockdown. At that point he was employee number nine. The company now employs more than 170 people.
