Tesco is launching on both Uber Eats and Deliveroo to offer rapid grocery delivery to “millions more shoppers” this summer.
Tesco had stood alone among its major supermarket competitors in not listing its stores on the aggregator apps, instead offering customers ultra-fast delivery only via its own quick commerce service Tesco Whoosh.
Since launching in 2021, Whoosh had “grown rapidly”, the supermarket said, with sales increasing by 51% last year and around 1.5 million customers now using Whoosh.
However, Tesco would now be able to “give even more shoppers access to thousands of Tesco grocery, fresh food, household and everyday essential products”, it said.
Tesco will launch on to Uber Eats in August, and Deliveroo later this summer.
Users of both Uber Eats and Deliveroo will be able to access “hundreds” of Clubcard Prices and collect Clubcard points when shopping at Tesco through the apps, “extending the benefits of Clubcard to millions more customers”.
“Whoosh has transformed the way millions of customers shop with Tesco, offering speed, convenience and great value through the power of Clubcard. Launching with Uber Eats and Deliveroo will enable us to bring those benefits to even more customers,” said Ashwin Prasad, Tesco UK CEO.
“Our online business continues to go from strength to strength, and these partnerships represent another important step in expanding our reach,” he added. “By combining Tesco’s market-leading range, quality and value with the scale of Uber Eats and Deliveroo, we’re making it even easier for more customers to shop with Tesco in the way that suits them best.”
Whoosh has been something of a success story for Tesco. Having launched from just a handful of stores, for what Tesco CEO Ken Murphy revealed last year to be “a handful of millions”, it has grown in scale and now encompasses around 1,800 stores, reaching more than 70% of the UK population.
“It’s now a really meaningful business,” Murphy told analysts in a results call in October. “It’s now growing at a really rapid rate. It has, we believe, some real competitive advantage that we want to exploit. So, you can see further investment in that. I think there’s quite a long way to go before we would say that model is mature.”
Last year, the supermarket upgraded the service to offer full-basket shops in select stores. Customers can now also book same-day delivery windows, shop without a minimum spend, complete larger basket shops and access an expanded range through more than 250 larger Tesco stores.
Tesco’s competitors, in contrast, launched rapid delivery first on the aggregator apps, before launching their own, in-house quick commerce services like Morrisons Now, Sainsbury’s Chop Chop, and Asda Express Delivery.
Nevertheless, most supermarket own-label rapid delivery offerings still rely on the aggregators and their white-label delivery services that allow supermarkets to sell product through their own-branded website and app, but leverage a network of couriers to deliver baskets.
Uber came first with white-label service Uber Direct, launched for restaurants in 2020, but more recently adopted by supermarkets. Stuart – a rapid delivery provider without a consumer-facing app – has a similar history. Deliveroo launched Deliveroo Express into grocery last year, beginning with three Tesco Whoosh stores across Ireland, and later Co-op. Just Eat Go, Just Eat’s delivery-as-a-service offering, launched in June, and is used by Whoosh and Morrisons Now.
“As the UK’s leading delivery platform, we are thrilled to partner with Britain’s biggest supermarket,” said Saskia de Jongh, vice president at Uber Eats, of the deal.
“Uber Eats reaches over 90% of people in the UK, with more and more people choosing instant delivery for the everyday essentials that keep life moving. We can’t wait to help bring Tesco’s Clubcard Prices and quality products to an even wider range of customers this August,” she said.
Rob Harris, VP merchant and chief revenue officer at Deliveroo, said on-demand grocery was “becoming an increasingly important part of many customers’ lives”.
“We’re delighted to be able to add Tesco to the Deliveroo platform, with the added value of Clubcard Prices and Clubcard points, he added.
The announcement comes as new NIQ data reveals rapid grocery delivery reached its highest share of online fmcg sales this year – 14% – on the day of England’s World Cup quarter-final, “as fans turned to quick grocery services for matchday essentials”.
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