Uber Technologies Inc is expanding its partnership with French grocery chain Carrefour SA to offer rapid delivery of groceries from nine micro-fulfillment centers across Paris.
Surging consumer demand for online ordering is driving San Francisco-based Uber to expand its local grocery offerings in Europe and the deal with Carrefour could be a prelude to a broader rollout of such services in other European markets.
While Uber customers were already able to receive items from Carrefour in 30 minutes, the new service is to allow consumers to get deliveries from so-called “dark store” locations operated by Carrefour-backed start-up Cajoo within 15 minutes, the firms said in a statement.
Photo: Reuters
“The opportunity is massive,” said Eve Henrikson, Uber’s regional general manager for delivery in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
“I think the question is: How can you win in the sense of providing the best possible customer proposition with the best possible operating model?” Henrikson said.
Earlier this year, Uber hired Henrikson from her role as online director at Tesco PLC, as the ride-hailing company’s grocery orders surged 620 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region last month from a year earlier.
There were more than 9,000 grocery stores on the Uber Eats app across EMEA last month, a 400 percent increase from the same time last year.
“I could see a number of countries for partnerships like this,” Henrikson said in an interview. “The UK is one of them, but I could see this model working in multiple markets in EMEA for us.”
The new service, called Carrefour Sprint, is to allow people in Paris to order from a selection of about 2,000 items such as produce and cleaning products.
Uber and Carrefour plan to expand the offering to other major French cities in the next few weeks.
Previously, Uber has worked on rapid delivery in the US in partnership with fast-growing start-up Gopuff.
Interest from industry heavyweight Uber adds to the growing rush into the sector from publicly listed delivery companies, with US leader DoorDash Inc and Germany’s Delivery Hero SE both investing in rapid grocery apps Flink SE and Gorillas Technologies GmbH respectively.
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