STREAMLINE YOUR SERVICE

CHARLES WHITTING nds out where retailers can make e ciencies in their home delivery service to make it more pro table

FINDING THE PROFITS POST-PANDEMIC

THE Covid-19 pandemic saw the home delivery trend explode from a slowly growing idea into an essential innovation and opportunity for convenience retailers to reach customers who wouldn’t or couldn’t visit their stores.

Retailers found they could sell their products to people who would never – or had never – set foot in their shops, broadening their customer base and overall sales without having to expand the footprint of their stores.

However, now people are back on the move, the questions for retailers is whether the demand that skyrocketed during the pandemic is still there, and whether o ering home delivery is still a viable and pro table option during a cost-of-living crisis.

“We can already see with the cost-of-living crisis that people are watching what they’re spending, and the use of delivery services is decreasing,” says Umar Majid, from Baba’s Kitchen in Glasgow.

“However, delivery services will still work for stores that have already got them and are running them properly.

“Anyone trying to introduce the service now from scratch could nd it very di cult.”

Ultimately, retailers need to balance the twin consumer demands around home deliv- ery: convenience and value. That means they have to deliver products faster and more seamlessly while still keeping prices low.

“Retailers have reached a crossroads,” says Dael Links, head of marketing for Snappy Shopper.

“They need to diversify their delivery options and invest in the right technology to meet the ongoing needs of their consumers.”