Co-op is allowing customers to order items from a website with same-day delivery.
Customers can choose from a selection of 1500 grocery items and either receive them at their home or office within two hours or click and collect from a store.
Store staff will pick and pack the orders to hand over to riders on electric bikes supplied by e-cargobikes.com. The latter says its bikes can deliver the same amount as a diesel van in a shift but only require 0.5% of the energy.
The same-day delivery service is initially available to shoppers within 4km of the Co-op store on Kings Road in Chelsea, with plans to roll it out to other London stores in the future.
Chris Conway, head of food digital at the Co-op, said: “This is an exciting time for the Co-op. As the leaders in convenience shopping, we want to look at different ways of bringing our award-winning products closer to shoppers, and this new service with e-cargobikes.com does exactly that.”
This is the first time Co-op has sold products from a web store. It supported home delivery before but customers had to order them from in-store terminals.
Co-op is also offering products on the app Deliveroo. The service is available from 11 London stores, in addition to the five in Manchester where it has been trialled since last year.
Chris Conway, head of digital at the Co-op, said in an InternetRetailing webinar last year that the retailer may sell online in the future.
However, he says when it comes that the offering will not be similar to that of its rivals, but “something very different and unique.”
