French supermarket group Carrefour and Spanish on-demand delivery start-up Glovo have teamed up to offer home deliveries of online grocery orders in 30 minutes, initially in major cities in France, Spain, Italy and Argentina.
The strategic partnership will allow urban consumers to benefit from a 30-minute delivery service, seven days a week, according to the two companies. Carrefour described the move as the latest step in its ambition to develop a unique omnichannel model and become the leader in food e-commerce, adding to its existing services including Express Delivery in France.
For its part, Glovo will be able to further develop its grocery segment and strengthen its geographic presence. Founded in 2015, the Spanish start-up is one of the world's fastest growing on-demand delivery players, distributing everything from groceries to pharmaceuticals and gifts within an hour. It is already present in 26 countries and over 186 cities.
Under the partnership, customers can choose from a carefully-selected range of 2,500 products on the Glovo platform, across several categories including fresh produce, groceries and everyday items such as health & beauty and household goods.
Glovo couriers collect orders prepared in Carrefour Market, Carrefour City and Express stores, which form a very extensive network of stores. The couriers then deliver the orders to customers by bicycle or scooter approximately 30 minutes after the order is placed.
The partnership will cover four countries – France, Spain, Italy and Argentina – and will start operating by early October at the latest. Paris in France, Sevilla and Valencia in Spain, Milan and Rome in Italy, and Buenos Aires in Argentina will be among the first wave of cities to launch the service. Other cities will follow in the coming months depending on the country.
"Carrefour is constantly looking for ways to deliver innovative services that make customers’ daily shopping experience easier. With this new partnership, Glovo and Carrefour will offer a 30-minute home delivery service that complements their existing e-commerce offers and allows them to address the needs of new customers," said Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Executive Director of Ecommerce, Data and Digital Transformation at Carrefour.
Oscar Pierre, CEO and co-founder of Glovo, said: “Glovo is enjoying strong growth and has big ambitions. Our goal is to make grocery shopping faster, smoother and more convenient than ever before for the customer. Our partnership with Carrefour will allow us to do this, building on this new vertical and helping us drive growth further around the world."
