The trend of instant grocery delivery — purchasing items online and having them delivered in under an hour — is spreading across many countries, and the pandemic has contributed more to the rapid growth of such startups. Irish grocery delivery startup Buymie is planning a 200-location expansion across Ireland and the United Kingdom.
According to the founder, the online grocery app became profitable in 2021.
Buymie, which debuted in 2016, is a smartphone app that allows customers to purchase groceries from handpicked stores and have them delivered to their house in as little as one hour. Its retail partners include Lidl, Dunnes Stores, and Tesco.
You can quickly explore the entire selection of fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh poultry, meat and fish, as well as all your shopping requirements from Buymie’s partner stores using the app.
Irish grocery delivery startup Buymie
Customers may choose from thousands of brands on their smartphones and have them delivered within an hour or at a time of their choice, thanks to the company’s ‘Jarvis’ algorithm. The platform also makes use of motion sensors on mobile phones to assist shoppers with traffic management and product shelf positioning.
The app leverages its network of crowd-sourced personal shoppers who are trained to select the best possible grocery items within the time limit. The company refers to them as pickers – these handpicked products are then sent to the customers.
The Irish online grocery app has chosen 200 significant towns and cities in Ireland and the United Kingdom for expansion, according to its co-founder Devan Hughes. In addition, the firm will consider obtaining further capital from investors to fuel this expansion, having already received €15.5 million from its backers.
Mr Hughes claimed the pandemic was “transformational” for the firm on Inside Business, a podcast from The Irish Times. ” We became an essential service overnight,” says the company, which completed a week’s worth of work in volume on the day it was announced in 2020 that workplaces and schools would close due to Covid-19 lockdown regulations.
“We have huge upside potential, particularly with our expansion in the UK. There is a €250 billion [grocery] market and we believe that our fair share is north of €1 billion a year in revenue . . . we have a long way to go.”
Irish grocery delivery startup Buymie
An €8.29 delivery fee, a €1.19 “processing and platform” fee to compensate the personal shopper and a 5% mark-up on retail pricing are all included in the price. The size of the basket is unrestricted.
The on-demand grocery industry and local delivery may be a major business in 2-3 years if well managed. Monopoly enterprises like Deliveroo and Uber will always exist, but there will always be a specialized market that they do not service. The overall value of the grocery retail market in Ireland and the United Kingdom is upwards of €140 billion, with just €9 billion being spent online, which is predicted to increase to more than €18 billion in the next five years.
Discovering the opportunities requires a great deal of monitoring of offline marketplaces, listening to customers, examining the landscape to find similar players, studying their shortcomings and then planning accordingly.
Sources:
