UK Retailers Ride eCommerce Delivery Wave With Faster, Eco-Conscious Commitments

British eCommerce shoppers still show a much stronger preference for at-home delivery, as local demand for curbside and in-store pickup options — or “click and collect” — in the U.K. remains stagnant year over year.

In fact, according to data from the U.K. edition of the “Global Digital Shopping Playbook” report, 86% of British consumers opted to have their most recent online purchases delivered to their homes — the highest across six countries surveyed — compared to only 14% who opted to pick them up.

This means that delivering products is non-negotiable if retailers want to retain market share, and major retailers like Co-op and Sainsbury’s have turned to aggregator-supermarket partnerships to capitalize on the trend and give consumers access to convenient, on-demand grocery delivery.

Others, however, are choosing to grow their own in-house online rapid delivery platforms, intensifying competition between the likes of Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo and trusted British retailers.

The U.K. largest retailer Tesco, for instance, announced in March of this year the expansion of its rapid home delivery service, Whoosh, to 1,000 Tesco Express convenience stores, reaching 55% of U.K. households across the country.

With Whoosh, customers can access a curated list of 2,500 to 4,500 essential products, which can be delivered in as little as 30 minutes at a cost of £2.99 (about $3.70) for orders of £15 (about $18.50) or more.

“We are getting faster, and our availability is at a consistently high level. Whether it is a missing ingredient as you start to prepare a meal or ordering a Finest meal deal to eat that night, Whoosh can quickly come to the rescue,” Greg Bertrand, head of Whoosh, said in a statement.

eCommerce Deliveries Go Electric

Beyond faster deliveries, some retailers are riding the at-home delivery wave with a commitment to net-zero emissions. This strategy is bound to tug at the heartstring of the growing number of eco-conscious consumers.

Earlier this month, Sainsbury’s, one of the ‘big four’ U.K. supermarket chains — others are Tesco, Asda and Morrisons — launched its first store with a fully electric delivery fleet, making sure that all products ordered from its Nine Elms London superstore are delivered with zero emissions.

The new 100% electric van fleet is expected to make 2000-plus deliveries on average each week, saving 57 tons of carbon annually and helping to significantly reduce air pollution in the local area, the retailer noted as part of plans to roll out electric vehicles to all its stores across the country by 2035.

But it’s not just Sainsbury’s that is working toward a sustainable future.

Tesco got ahead of the game last August when it deployed an electrically-powered lorry — in what it claimed was a U.K.’ industry first’ — aimed at reducing emissions and improving air quality in urban areas.

According to a statement released at the time, the company said the electric lorry would be making deliveries from its distribution centers to more than 400 stores across Greater London, replacing 30,000 diesel-fueled road miles with clean green energy each year.

And like Sainsbury’s, Tesco is in for the long haul, with plans to fully electrify its delivery fleet by 2028.