The Co-op Group has launched million-pound rapid delivery grocery app Peckish, for independent grocery retailers looking to add home delivery to their services.
Hailing the app as an industry first, the Group says it 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“.
It says 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”.
The Group is making an initial £1m investment for year one on Peckish, following a successful 30 store trial last year, and is targeting a first-year sign up of over 1,000 stores, with the hope of trebling that by year three.
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, the Group adds. This will be supplied by its quick commerce team, point of sale material, window stickers, leaflets, shelf talkers, digital and social media assets, posters and banners.
“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,” said Matt Hood, managing director of Co-op Food. “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.”
Smaller, family-owned, independent businesses interested in finding out more should contact peckish@coop.co.uk
Meanwhile, the Group has released new data, compiled by eye-tracking company Lumen Research, which shows that convenience store advertising has twice the visibility, picks up triple the attention and quadruple brand recall compared to larger stores.
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The study comes from a partnership between Lumen and the Group’s Co-op Media Network (CMN) to look at the effect of in-store media.
CMN says that the smaller store sizes and formats – and higher footfall – in the convenience store model means ads will be seen and recalled by more people.
Lumen’s study tracked shoppers through stores wearing eye-tracking glasses which monitored what they were looking at – and for how long. Shoppers were then quizzed on brand recall and given surveys to complete.
The study found that attention and recall were significantly enhanced in the convenience setting.
Kenyatte Nelson, chief membership a customer officer at the Group, said: “Traditionally, in-store advertising has been viewed by media buyers as a pure sales activation tool that was great for last-minute promotions but not brand-building. However, this evidence spotlights retail media, especially in a convenience setting, as one of the most powerful brand recall tools.”
