UK supermarket Asda has teamed up with Uber Eats and extended a partnership with Wincanton as it seeks to serve increased online food shopping demand.
Customers place the order through the Uber Eats app; it is then picked in a store by an Asda member of staff and handed over to an Uber Eats courier. Over 300 products will be available, with no minimum basket size for the order and delivery in as little as 30 minutes.
The service is currently available from stores in Leeds and Birmingham, with the possibility of extending it to more later this year.
Simon Gregg, VP of online grocery at Asda, said: “This will give Asda customers more choice in how they shop with us and offer yet another way to quickly and conveniently get their favourite branded and own-brand products delivered to the doorstep.”
French supermarket chain Carrefour has worked with Uber Eats in Paris for grocery deliveries. In the UK, supermarkets Morrisons and Marks & Spencer have used on-demand app and Uber Eats rival Deliveroo.
While neither Asda nor Uber disclosed the revenue-sharing model, it is unclear that these apps can support the kinds of volumes that retailer’s delivery fleets are used to handling for retailers without eating into retailer margins. Uber says on its website that a driver doing a single 5.2 mile order could be paid as much as £6.70, which combined with the labour costs of preparing the order, would eat significantly into retailer margins and would be likely to make the costs prohibitive.
In addition, Uber drivers often use smaller vehicles such as motorcycles so will not be able to deliver to the same number of households on a route as a courier van.
This week also saw Asda extend its relationship with Wincanton for a further two years until 2023. The partnership includes management of warehousing and transport operations from four Asda sites in Doncaster, Larne, Rochdale and Wigan.
Chris Hall, senior director for central logistics at Asda, said: “When collaboration in the supply-chain is more important than ever, we look forward to continuing to find new and innovative ways to add value for both organisations.”
Asda has also signed a parrtnership with AMH Materials Handling to convert its clothing distribution centre in Washington, Tyne and Wear, to an ecommerce and retail fulfilment site. It will increase the handling capacity by 50%.
