Co-op partners with Amazon to expand online sales, set to increase robot deliveries

The Co-op has announced a partnership with Amazon Prime, in turn enabling Britons to do their complete grocery shopping online with same-day delivery, reports stated today (16).

The supermarket chain is also extending its robot deliveries, so it can push its online sales up from £70 million to £200 million.

The partnership launched in Glasgow and surrounding areas today (16) and will be rolled out to other parts of the country before the end of the year.

Orders over £40 will be delivered free by Amazon’s Flex service, all of whose couriers are self-employed, and assembled at Co-op stores by the shop staff.

Currently, Co-op sells £70m a year of groceries online both directly, via food courier group Deliveroo and robot delivery specialist Starship Technologies.

Co-op is also extending its partnership with Starship Technologies, the robot company launched by the co-founders of Skype, which allows the delivery of groceries in as little as 20 minutes.

About 200 of Starship’s autonomous robots deliver Co-op groceries in Milton Keynes and Northampton. The number is set to rise to 500 by the end of this year as the robots will roll into five new towns and cities in areas including Cambridgeshire and the north of England, reports said.

Co-op group chief executive Steve Murrells said that the pandemic has accelerated changes in consumer shopping trends and “we’re driving forward with exciting plans to provide rapid kerb to kitchen grocery delivery services”.

Jo Whitfield, chief executive of Co-op Food, said that co-op stores across the country are well-placed to serve shoppers locally and a key part of our strategy is to further develop the e-commerce offer “by using the competitive advantage of our store footprint to provide ultra-fast home deliveries”.

“As a convenience retailer, the ability to come into stores will always be important to customers, but we also know that they want flexible options online. Our commercial strategy is focused on getting closer to where they are to provide what they need, however and wherever they choose to shop with us,” Whitfield said.

The partnership by the Co-op with Amazon, however, has come under criticism from the GMB union, which is campaigning to improve workers’ rights at Amazon.

Andy Prendergast, national officer of the GMB, said: “It’s really disappointing to see a company with a proud ethical heritage like Co-op teaming up with Amazon: a tax evading multinational with a horrifying health and safety record.

“Amazon has made billions throughout the pandemic and pays virtually no tax. Bosses won’t even recognise a union to improve the health and safety of their beleaguered workforce,” Prendergast said.