Shoppers are turning to rapid delivery solutions to take control of their lives and order a wide range of retail categories as well as takeaway food. That’s according to a new white paper from the online food aggregator and delivery platform Just Eat.
The white paper, Control on demand, the shift to online delivery, was produced in partnership with PA Consulting. The findings are based on interviews with 3,000 consumers in Canada, the UK and Germany.
The research found 90% of customers say increased control over their time, choices and lifestyle is a key priority for them. Eighty two per cent say their home is where they feel most at ease and two in three agree knowing they can get what they want in under one hour feels like taking back control.
Gemma Proctor at PA Consulting said the key theme was about about taking back control. “We are living though a polycrisis and rapid rate of change, which is a creating a pressure cooker of people not feeling like they have control,” she said.
Nine out of 10 people are facing stress and they want to take control over how they spend their time, she added.
“Control has become a new emotional currency,” Proctor opined.
Carlos Hernandez, senior director of new verticals at Just Eat, said rapid delivery was empowering everyday convenience.
The research showed Just Eat was only “scratching the surface” in retail and the company’s new owner, the global tech company Prosus, had a growth agenda, Hernandez said.
Just Eat has been expanding its retail categories. Grocery was launched three years ago and has been followed by pilots in new verticals including electronics, flowers, pharmacy, beauty and pet care. Fashion is poised to follow.
“We believe it will grow and blossom,” he said. “We are super excited about the journey – growth is going to be outstanding.”
Guido Fambach, EVP sales at Just Eat, said informing shoppers they can get other products on the platform was key. “We need to educate customers that we are more than food,” he said. Just Eat can also help other retailers get over the hurdle of delivery with its JET Go solution and has adapted its business to handle age restricted products and the delivery of pharmaceutical and self care products with discrete packaging, for instance. “Different products need different handling and we have to adjust our processes for different products,” Famach said.
A top-up shopping solution is also on the cards. “We are going to launch that very soon to allow customers to combine orders,” he added.
Hernandez said Just Eat was focused on categories where the the use case is most important. Pharmacy is Just Eat’s top retail category in this respect with top sellers being paracetamol, nappies and ibuprofen. However, Just Eat had recorded huge sales of pregnancy tests.
“There are use cases where people just want privacy and what you decide you want people to know about,” said Claire Pointon EVP UK and Ireland Just Eat.
Pharmacy partners include Boots and Phoenix Pharma. Sylvain Hanssen, director for digital commerce at Phoenix, said rapid delivery was key for pharmacy products for individual consumers but also provided a use case for carers to manage orders through quick delivery. Nurses, for instance, have been ordering syringes through the platform. Hanssen said more use cases would emerge over time and in future there was an opportunity to combine the delivery of medicines with other related retail categories such as healthy food and sports products.
He insisted rapid delivery did not cannibalise store sales. Rather it made sure the sale would still be there in five years’ time. “It’s another way for my brand to be relevant,” he said.
Just Eat is not cannibalising store-based sales, Pointon agreed. “It extends sales and footfall to the home for brands,” she said.
Beauty is also growing very fast, appealing to Gen Z who see products on TikTok videos and want to buy them straight away. Here, the top selling product is hair dye but the average order value is significantly bigger than other categories and Just Eat has delivered a €1,300.00 basket. Bodyshop has come on board as a new beauty partner in the last two months.
Selfcare, where Just Eat partners with Lovehoney, has been a surprise category and “way bigger than we expected”, said Hernandez.
Top sellers are condoms, lubes and men’s solo toys.
“We expected to grow with females but we are growing the most with male customers,” Hernandez revealed.
In pet care, where Just Eat partners with Fressnapf, the largest pet retailer in Europe, the study found 65% of respondents feel guilty when they run out of their pet’s favourite food.
Just Eat has delivered 1.8m pet care orders since launch with top sellers being Catsan Hygiene 10l, Whiskas Chicken for Cats 80g and Good Boy Mega Chew Dog Treat.
In electronics, where Just Eat partners with MediaMarkt, the business had been interested to learn whether people would want to buy electronic items from a food delivery aggregator. They do and top sellers include USB chargers, Playstation controllers and Fujifilm Instax Mini Film; while gaming is one of the biggest categories.
Hernandez said Just Eat had hosted a launch event for the Nintendo Switch 2 in Germany where the number of consoles sold in the first 30 minutes was “outstanding”.
CeX, the second hand electronics retailer, partners with Just Eat to meet customers where they are, according to Richard Oldham, head of innovation and product. Top sellers include games, chargers, power banks and consoles. “There is demand for convenience products, when people forget things,” he said. The company also still sells 10s of thousands of DVDs, he revealed. In future there will be an opportunity to pick up products from the consumer and take to stores and sell for cash.
Flowers have been available to order through Just Eat for 12 months and in that time the platform has sold over half a million roses. Top sellers are bouquets of roses, colourful mix bouquets and mixed carnations bouquets. Here, Just Eat partners with Interflora, and insists that quality is very important especially with regard to delivery and that “flowers must arrive in the right way”.
“These are shopping missions that customers want and we need to make sure we become experts,” Hernandez said.
“We believe retail is going to be one of the growth engines.”
