More than 90% of orders made through Tesco’s one-hour delivery service Whoosh arrive within 30 minutes, new figures reveal.
The service – which offers one-hour delivery for a flat £5 fee from 400 stores – was quietly launched in May last year, from a single store in Wolverhampton. Tesco’s ambition for the service is for it to be available from at least 600 stores by the end of next year.
Despite being a one-hour service, the majority of Whoosh orders arrive within only half that time, with only 1% not doing so within 60 minutes. Half-hour deliveries are more typically seen with orders made via courier platforms such as Uber Eats or Deliveroo delivering from grocery stores. Meanwhile, the rapid grocers are now typically taking about this long to deliver orders, despite launching with 10 and 15-minute delivery promises.
“We’re really pleased to be partnering with Tesco at a time when dynamic delivery is integral to meeting the needs of businesses and consumers,” said Brendan Hamill, UK general manager at Stuart.
“The collaboration sees Stuart technology power rapid, last-mile deliveries from Tesco stores throughout the UK, and we’re looking forward to further strengthening our partnership with the retailer in the future,” he added.
At present Whoosh deliveries are made by courier company Stuart by bike, moped or car after orders are picked from shelves by Tesco staff. But the “sweet spot”, Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said in January, was when Whoosh could leverage Tesco’s ‘urban fulfillment centres’ (UFCs) “because you can capture an order and process it through a UFC in seven minutes”.
“So all of a sudden you could be offering a much larger shopping trip in a much shorter time frame than we currently do,” Murphy said at the time.
Earlier this year Tesco abandoned its partnership with rapid grocer Gorillas – now the subject of acquisition talks with rival Getir.
“We remain focused on being the most convenient retailer for our customers across the UK and we continue to offer rapid delivery through our Whoosh service,” a Tesco spokeswoman told The Grocer.
A Gorillas spokeswoman added: “Despite a positive customer response, both Gorillas and Tesco have mutually made the decision as Gorillas is focused on winning the London market and becoming the number one quick commerce player in the city, while Tesco aims to serve customers across the UK.”
Stuart told The Grocer it had been working with Tesco to “refine and perfect ultra-rapid grocery deliveries from store”.
This included “making the handover process smoother to save on the time it takes for orders to reach the end customer” and the supermarket implementing “faster picking and packing processes”.
No comments yet