Post-pandemic and food ecommerce - new models and customer experiences

Today, over 50% of French people have already tried one of the food delivery services (Source : Cnews). Middle class populations, located in denser urban areas and accustomed to digital and e-commerce are also helping to attract new services and business models to major cities.

Before the Covid crisis, the historical brakes on home delivery were essentially still linked to a lack of trust (impossible to test, touch the products, especially fresh ones), the limited choice of products on the platforms, the habit of the "physical experience", the delivery time (not always practical), as well as the fear linked to the freshness and "durability" of the products received in delivery... 

September in Paris was marked by the arrival in the capital of Yango Deli, the new shopping delivery service launched by the Russian tech giant Yandex. After 5 cities in Russia and the recent launch in Tel Aviv, Yango Deli is now conquering Paris and London. What does it promise? Your fresh food shopping delivered in 15 minutes by bike or electric scooter. No minimum order unlike other services: Yango is banking on small, spontaneous and frequent purchases.

The logistics behind the ultra-fastness of start-ups such as Gorillas, a German unicorn, or Cajoo, a French start-up, are based on the model of "dark stores": a network of small distribution centres, inaccessible to the public, like the "dark kitchens" of restaurants that do not receive customers physically (for example: services such as Frichti, Nestor, etc.).

This promise, speed of delivery and reduced product offering, is the opposite of the historical players in food delivery, such as Houra: this service, which is already well known to the French, offers 50,000 references from all supermarkets (as opposed to 3,000 at Yango), and requires a minimum purchase. While Houra remains an online "hypermarket", Yango aims to position itself more like a "supermarket" in town, with the addition of local products.

Aggregator's services, such as Epicery, initially a marketplace for local shops, are often supported by large companies, which allows them to benefit from their logistics and assortment solutions. Already backed by Monoprix, Epicery offers Franprix, Monoprix and Naturalia (from the Casino group) products on their site. In 2021, the La Poste group will take a majority stake (Source : LSA). The customer journey is less fluid than on sites such as Houra or the e-commerce of chains such as Carrefour and Leclerc, since the customer buys fruit and vegetables in one shop, fish in another and groceries in a third; but the model allows customers to support local shops and find fresh quality products without leaving their homes. As each shop has its own supply and delivery route, there is no promise of superfast delivery and a minimum order of €20 in each shop.

Another collaborative business model is that of Shopopop, a delivery startup from Nantes. The service offers to have your goods delivered by your neighbours: once you have paid for your locker in the shop of your choice, you choose the option of home delivery by Shopopop, and the nearest private delivery driver is notified.

Behind the multiplicity of these new offers lies the logistical challenge that weighs on the economic equations of the various models. According to the Capgemini study "The Last-Mile Delivery Challenge" in 2020, 97% of companies state that current last-mile delivery models are not sustainable everywhere and on a large scale, but only 1% of them are ready to assume the entire cost of last-mile delivery.