The Need for Speed: Coles confirms that Click and Collect within 60 minutes across store network.

Originally written by Emma Koehn in the Sydney Morning Herald

Coles boss Steven Cain says food delivery platforms such as DoorDash and Uber will play a role as the grocery giant works to bring shoppers their orders faster, after the supermarket launched a one-hour click-and-collect offer across the country.

Coles confirmed on Wednesday that click-and-collect orders would now be available for pick-up within 60 minutes at 400 stores – shaving 30 minutes off the retailer’s 90-minute “rapid” boot delivery service. The company plans to expand the service to 200 more sites next year.

The group unveiled the plan at its newly refurbished store in Melbourne’s Westfield Southland shopping centre, which has the brand’s biggest click-and collect collection site.

Cain said Coles had worked to offer the largest range of grocery items of any click-and-collect program in the country, with 20,000 products to choose from. The service will be available between 8.30am and 4.30pm daily for a $5 flat fee.

“This is the first [click-and-collect site] where we’ve been able to do it for liquor as well. It will also be linked in the future to the likes of DoorDash and Uber and all those immediacy services – then click and collect becomes home delivery as well,” he said.

The food delivery sector has been in the spotlight over the past week after Deliveroo announced it would exit the Australian market.

Deliveroo has not been a Coles major partner, but Cain said the supermarket giant continued to work with Uber and DoorDash using a range of models, including delivering groceries ordered through the Coles website as well as orders made directly via UberEats or DoorDash.

“With all these things you just have to try out different things and see what works and what doesn’t,” Cain said.

Coles’ focus on quick pick-ups comes after a period of huge growth in e-commerce sales across supermarkets in the years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Online grocery sales declined at the supermarket in the past quarter, but are still showing 105 per cent growth compared with three years ago.

Consumers have come to expect fast service over the past two years and retailers across the country have been developing new methods for pick-up and delivery.

On Wednesday, this masthead revealed that food delivery service DoorDash will enter the grocery delivery game with a fleet of corner stores accessible only to its contracted couriers to deliver essentials to shoppers.

Meanwhile, Woolworths has expanded its “Metro60” delivery app to Melbourne in August after a successful launch in Sydney, promising shoppers delivery in under 60 minutes from a selection of more than 4000 products.

Despite the enthusiasm for these services, some have found it challenging to find a sustainable business model. A number of the grocery delivery start-ups that emerged during lockdowns have fallen on hard times this year. Food delivery service Deliveroo made the shock decision to exit last week. 

Cain said on Wednesday that the entire retail sector was still working out the best model for getting groceries to shoppers fast. However, he said a 60-minute window was a “sweet spot” for a sustainable delivery model, with shorter windows not as realistic.

“Worldwide, a lot of people were going down that 15 minutes and or 30 minute [delivery] route. It doesn’t seem to be economically viable – we think an hour right now is the sweet spot in terms of it working for us and working for customers.”