Carrefour and Glovo sign strategic partnership

Carrefour has announced it has signed a strategic partnership with Glovo, which will enable it to offer shoppers with a 30-minute delivery service, seven days a week in four countries.

Carrefour and Glovo said the partnership covers the former’s operations in France, Argentina, Italy and Spain. It will mean that Carrefour has exclusive rights to Glovo’s operations in France. The agreement will help Carrefour as it looks to develop a unique omnichannel model and become a leader in grocery ecommerce, as part of its 2022 Transformation Plan.

The partnership with Glovo is in addition to Carrefour’s existing solutions, such as Express Delivery service in France and the agreement it has with Supermercato24 in Italy. Carrefour and Glovo said they will begin operating together ‘by early October at the latest’. The two parties said they would focus on key cities in each country: Paris in France, Buenos Aires in Argentina, Milan and Rome in Italy and Sevilla and Valencia in Spain. More cities will be added following the launch.

The companies said the solution was aimed at offering shoppers ‘a simple, fast and convenient experience for [them] to buy groceries online’. To use the service, shoppers choose from a curated range of 2,500 SKUs, with orders prepared in Carrefour Market, Carrefour City and Express stores in the cities. Finally, orders are delivered by bicycle or scooter approximately 30 minutes after being placed by one of Glovo’s couriers.

In its home market especially, but elsewhere too, Carrefour has been slow to invest in its online operations. Since the launch of its 2022 Transformation Plan, though, the retailer has rapidly increased its investment in its ecommerce solutions, both on its own and in conjunction with third party companies. The partnership with Glovo will quicken the pace of this expansion in key markets, especially France where it is under pressure from Leclerc, Amazon and Casino, with the latter already working with Ocado and Amazon. (retailanalysis.igd.com)