Co-op has announced the launch of a new rapid delivery grocery app exclusively for small and independent retailers so that they can offer speedy deliveries to communities.
As announced today (27) by Co-op, the new million-pound rapid delivery grocery app called Peckish will enable small, often family-owned, independent grocery businesses, shops and other co-operative retail societies to provide an online grocery shopping and delivery service to their local customers.
The Peckish app overcomes barriers that independent retailers face when moving to sell online, including cost, scale and resource, allowing smaller-scale bricks and mortar retailers to have a presence online and enabling more consumers to quickly and conveniently shop local and support their high street stores.
Co-op is making an initial £1 million investment for year one on Peckish, following a successful 30 store trial last year, and is targeting an ambitious first year sign up of over 1,000 stores, with potential to treble that by year three.
Shoppers can use Peckish to choose their shop from the range of products the individual retailer has selected to put online.
Retailers select the price, enabling them to match in-store prices and can choose whether to deliver the online orders themselves, or for it to be managed through Co-op’s order management system and delivered quickly and conveniently locally through Co-op’s delivery partners, including Just Eat and Uber Direct, in as little as under 30 minutes.
Peckish will link with a retailer’s EPOS system, saving manual tasks such as pricing and stock control and management.
Retailers who sign up will also receive a range of support including data, trends and insight from Co-op’s leading quick commerce team, point of sale material, window stickers, leaflets, shelf talkers, digital and social media assets, posters and banners.
Matt Hood, Co-op Food Managing Director, said, “The growth and popularity of quick commerce in the UK is exceptional, as consumers appetite for a convenient grocery delivery service in as little as 30 minutes from ordering, increases almost weekly.
"We are experts in running small, local convenience shops and the leading quick comm operator, and I’m excited about being able to share this expertise with all our neighbouring independent retailers, to help them extend their customer reach and services online, which in turn, can help transform their businesses.
“We know that smaller local shops, like our own, operate at the heart of the local community life. More than a shop, they are a community hub, creating value locally through job creation, community participation and their support of local suppliers.
"The ‘shop local’ sentiment is strong amongst consumers, and Peckish can help more retailers connect quickly online with their customers, providing greater consumer choice locally, and promoting healthier and more viable high streets and communities.”
Earlier this month, wholesaler Booker launched a brand-new ordering platform Scoot exclusively for its symbol group retailers to help them deliver local groceries to their customers’ doors, in as little as 30 minutes.
The new ordering platform connects shoppers with their local participating independent retailer enabling them to order food, drinks and household essentials from a curated list of products chosen by the retailer.
Independent retailers are furious with parcel carrier Evri after hearing that the weekly volume bonus that they receive is to be cut from April 6. The move is being revealed in a letter sent out to Evri’s network of retailers.
Mo Razzaq, the National President of the Federation of Independent Retailers (the Fed), said that he will lose several hundreds of pounds in bonus payments over a year, as a result.
“In a letter advising of the change, Evri celebrates the continual growth of shopping online in the UK, adding that more and more customers are choosing to use ParcelShops to send, collect and return parcels," he said.
“It goes on to add that parcel volumes have grown by tens of millions across its ParcelShop network, driving additional footfall and revenue benefits to retailers. And it expects this trend to continue.
“Evri then describes ParcelShops as 'the heart of its business' and 'important to our customers' and states that it wants to share that growth with us. Yet in the very next sentence, it advises of a 'small change to the weekly volume bonus, which will take effect from next month'.”
Mr Razzaq said on average he receives £23 a week in bonus payments but because of this change, this will fall to £17.
In its full year of accounts to February 29, 2024, Evri recorded a revenue of £1.7 billion and a record-breaking profit of £117million, which was more than double of the previous year.
Mr Razzaq added: “With Evri announcing record profits and acknowledging the key role that retailers play in this, cutting our bonus payments and denying us hundreds of pounds as a result is a sharp blow indeed.”
Independent retailers' association The Fed has expressed extreme disappointment at the news that PayPoint’s monthly service fee is to rise from April. PayPoint, on the other hand, has reiterated that the rise in the fees is in line with "standard RPI increase" as well as increase in commissions.
Letters advising of the increase have been arriving with PayPoint’s network of retailers since Friday last week (February 28).
The letters state that the rise has followed PayPoint’s annual review of its prices against the retail price index (RPI). It adds that on February 19, 2025, RPI stood at 3.6 per cent.
However, Mo Razzaq, the Fed’s National President described the move as “extremely disappointing” coming at a time when independent retailers were facing unprecedented challenges.
He said, “Fed members are being tested to the limits. Costs are rising, retail crime is at its highest levels yet and independent retailers are beset with red tape.
"In April, businesses are already facing the perfect storm of increases both to national insurance contributions and the national minimum wage. Now, they will have this increase from PayPoint to contend with.”
In 2022 and 2023 – and following discussions with Fed officials – although the payment specialist increased its service fee charge, it absorbed the additional costs caused by inflation to protect its network of retailers. Last year, the full increase was applied.
After being advised of the impending increase at a meeting with PayPoint last month, Fed officials asked the company to think again.
Razzaq said, “It is a huge blow that although we raised the concerns of members with PayPoint, this appears to have fallen on deaf ears and, once again, the company is raising its monthly service fee in line with the RPI.
"PayPoint needs to be aware that this move could have consequences, with some retailers now looking ever more closely at the feasibility of offering some of its services.”
Meanwhile, PayPoint maintains that it remains committed to more opportunities for retailers and its services has resulted in more commissions in the past year.
A PayPoint spokesperson tells Asian Trader, "Our longstanding commitment to drive more opportunities to earn for our retailer partners remains strong, with even more profitable, diversified community services rolled out over the past year.
"This has driven an over 20 per cent increase in commissions paid to our retailer partners year on year, with even more opportunities to generate revenue through our partnerships coming in 2025.”
“It is therefore important to consider the standard RPI increase of 3.6 per cent in that context, with more investment this year in a new Store Growth Specialist team to support our retailers in maximising opportunities to earn, an increase to the amount of face-to-face contact in store via our Retail Relationship Managers and delivering additional support to help retailers earn more revenue from these services."
"This comes a week after it was reported that PayPoint has increased the accessibility of its services by making key training guides available for retailers in Urdu, Indian Punjabi and Sinhalese, the most widely spoken languages among retailers across its network who do not speak English as a first language.
Almost a third of online deliveries from big supermarkets such as Tesco and Aldi included a swapped item, many of which were deemed as "completely inappropriate” by the shoppers, shows a recent poll.
According to a survey by Which? 29 per cent of online grocery shoppers said they received a substitution in their most recent order, with some stating that they had received some unexpected replacements like receiving fish steaks instead of cupcakes, and sanitary towels in place of sandwich wraps.
Among the supermarkets goofing up, Asda ranks the highest with almost half of Asda shoppers receiving a replacement product in their last order, the survey suggests, and they gave the supermarket just two stars out of five for its choice of substitute items.
One customer reported receiving bananas instead of pizza, another found a roasting tin in place of roast potatoes and a third said they had been given micellar water facial cleanser instead of drinking water.
The poll found a third of Sainsbury’s customers (32 per cent) found a substitution in their latest shop, although the grocer received three stars for its selections, suggesting they were generally well-received.
Among the more bizarre examples reported to Which? were beef dog treats instead of beef steaks and leeks instead of flowers.
Among the 31 per cent of Morrisons customers sent replacement items was one who said they found sanitary towels instead of sandwich wraps and another who received fish steaks in place of lemon cupcakes.
Unlike most independent convenience stores who try to reach out to the shopper before making a swap, supermarkets tend to consider computer-generated options based on factors such as brand similarity, the price and availability.
Retailer Biren Patel, owner of Budgens Berrymoor, and Natalie Lightfoot, owner of Lodis Solo Convenience store in Scotland, are among the retailers who make sure to call the customer if he finds an item from online order out of stock.
In a recent conversation with Asian Trader, Patel explained, “We take extra care with delivery customers, like if we get an order and we don’t have one thing, we call and ask for replacements rather than removing it from list or adding something from our side.
He also added that since most of the time, such online orders are immediate need-based, he makes sure not to miss any item as it might be "a necessary ingredient of a family meal preparation".
Such personalised service is often not present at the bigger chains.
While many saw the funny side of substitutions, Which? heard from several customers who complained about receiving meat or dairy instead of vegetarian or vegan alternatives.
Some supermarkets allow customers to opt out of receiving replacement items altogether, but most will notify customers about substitutions beforehand via email or text and allow them to refuse the new item if they do not want it.
All the supermarkets in Which?’s survey allow customers to hand back unwanted substitutions to the delivery driver, or when they pick up a click and collect, and receive a refund.
PayPoint has taken further steps to increase the accessibility of its services by making key training guides available for retailers in Urdu, Indian Punjabi and Sinhalese – the most widely spoken languages among retailers across its network who do not speak English as a first language.
To better help retailers make the most of PayPoint in store, translated guides are now available to download online for the PayPoint Mini and Connect here. Retailers will also be sent emails with the resources on launch.
“We’re always listening to feedback from our network of retailer partners and looking at ways we can make resources as accessible as possible," said Antony Sappor, Retail Proposition & Partnerships Director, PayPoint, said: By providing key materials in a wider array of translations, we hope that more of our retailer partners can take advantage of the tools on offer to help their businesses thrive, delivering the best possible service to their local communities.”
For further information on the translated guides, or if there is a language which you would like to be considered for future translations, retailers are encouraged to feedback to PayPoint at contactus@paypoint.com.
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Leading suppliers sign-up for TWC's reporting solution
Coca-Cola and KP Snacks are among first five suppliers to sign up to WholeView reporting solution by TWC, the data and insight specialists for the wholesale sector.
TWC's WholeView is a platform for suppliers who want to aggregate wholesale shipments data bought from multiple wholesalers into one online reporting tool.
Whereas data can sit across many places in an organisation, which is time-consuming and can lead to inaccurate calculations, WholeView provides a "single version of the truth" about sales performance across the whole route-to-market (RTM) channel, states TWC.
Data is cleansed, merged and then aggregated by TWC’s hugely experienced data quality team managed by Vicky Davies, before being delivered quickly and securely via TWC’s market leading dashboards to an unlimited number of users at the supplier organisation.
The first five clients to join WholeView are:
1. AG Barr
2. Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
3. KP Snacks
4. Suntory Beverage and Food GB&I
5. Unilever Food Solutions
Kelly Pye, Head of Client Services at TWC, said, "We are delighted to welcome our first clients to WholeView.
"Their need for aggregated data channel via an intuitive and visual data reporting solution aligns perfectly with our mission to provide cutting-edge solutions that drive success and growth.
“By integrating WholeView into their operations, they are poised to unlock new levels of efficiency, productivity, and strategic insight – they will find areas of opportunity quickly by using SmartView."
This comes week after TWC released its SmartView Convenience report showing key trends that shaped the independent convenience channel last year.
Among the key trends, value sales were down -6 per cent through 2024 majorly owing to drop in sales of tobacco products though value growth was seen in confectionery, soft drinks and food-to-go.
The report's other findings are:
Three categories were in value growth in the sector – confectionery, soft drinks and food-to-go.
Average spend per unit has only increased by 1 per cent in 2024.
Alcohol sales under-performed at Christmas (versus the performance over the rest of the year), reflecting the deep promotions offered by other operators (e.g. retail multiples) during December; as well as changing consumer habits and the fact that the comparative period in 2023 included two less trading days on the run up to New Year’s Eve (4 w/e 29.12.23).
The leading suppliers are winning share. In eight key convenience categories, three quarters of the top two suppliers in each category are growing their share of sales in the channel.