Joonas Bienek, the global head of Wolt+, talks to ESM about the Finnish online platform's market aspirations. This article first appeared in ESM’s January/February 2024 edition.
In 2021, Finnish online delivery platform Wolt established Wolt+, a membership programme offering zero delivery fees from its network of restaurant and retail partners, exclusive offers, and other additional benefits.
Two years on from that launch, and with Wolt+ now present in most of the company’s global markets, it recently introduced Wolt+ Weeks, a discounting campaign that enables Wolt+ users to avail of promotions from the merchants that they use most often.
“Essentially, Wolt+ Weeks is about showcasing the great selection and partnerships with restaurants or grocery partners that we have on the programme,” Joonas Bienek, the global head of Wolt+, tells ESM from the company’s Helsinki offices.
“I think the timing is excellent because it’s almost exactly two years since we first launched Wolt+, so it’s a great celebration of that milestone, and a fantastic opportunity to bring something extra to both our members and the partners participating in Wolt+.”
From Wolt To Wolt+
Since its foundation in 2014 – launching its first partnership with ten Helsinki restaurants the following year – the Wolt story has largely been one of expansion. The platform is now available in 25 countries (Austria and Iceland are the most recent additions) and more than 500 cities, generating more than €3 billion in total sales for over 120,000 merchant partners in 2022 alone, not to mention paying over €750 million to its network of couriers.
The consolidation of the quick-commerce food delivery sector saw Wolt acquired by US peer DoorDash in 2021, with the latter maintaining the Wolt name as it has expanded into new markets. DoorDash CEO Tony Xu commented at the time that the deal would “improve our investment efficiency, increase our long-term profit potential, and generate significant shareholder value.”
Wolt+ was also launched in 2021 – initially on a test basis – in Czechia, Poland and Georgia. It is now live in 22 markets, with further expansion said to be on the cards.
“We have received a really positive reception from our customers and merchants alike,” Bienek says of the Wolt+ initiative. “Our customers have saved €70 million, thanks to Wolt+. It’s really about bringing these savings and an affordability platform to our customers, and, of course, providing visibility and increased sales for merchants.”
According to the company, Wolt+ has driven additional sales for 75,000 merchants across its network, with the company eager to ensure that all parties involved – customers, merchants, and the company’s network of couriers – benefit from its approach. Wolt+ Weeks, which ran for a three-week period in January 2024, helps to underpin that.
“We’ve been able to enhance our basic model in a way that offers more savings for customers, more use cases, greater affordability, and increased convenience,” says Bienek. “This, in turn, translates into more orders and more business for participating merchants. So, from my perspective, it brings a bit more speed into the flywheel, so to speak.
“What we obsess over is making this experience as optimal as possible for all parties on our platform, whether it’s customers, merchants or couriers. We focus on innovating ways to make shopping and discovering new products easier on the platform for customers, assist merchants in growing their sales, and help couriers secure more opportunities on the platform.”
Local Heroes
Last year, Wolt undertook a series of surveys, in collaboration with market research firm Norstat, to determine the level to which it has supported local businesses in the countries in which it operates. It found that 86% of its merchants are small businesses, 11% are medium sized, and 3% are large-scale operators. In addition, 72% of respondents said that their association with the platform has helped them to reach new customers, while 50% answered that it has enabled them to generate more revenue.
“We operate in various countries and cities, each with its own set of small businesses or business hubs,” says Bienek. “With this in mind, we need to ensure that we provide a relevant offering for our customers in all these areas.”
Major retailers using the platform include Kesko in Finland, Rimi in the Baltic region, and Billa in Central Europe, however, the “partner landscape varies significantly from country to country and market to market,” Bienek adds. “We collaborate with a diverse range of retailers, including larger supermarket chains and smaller local players, catering to different customer needs.”
In a number of markets, the company also operates a network of dark stores under the Wolt Market banner.
Of course, the shopper in Finland or Germany is likely to have different needs to the shopper in Azerbaijan or Kazakhstan, so, while the value proposition might be the same in each market in which Wolt+ is available, the company takes strides to ensure that it is relevant to the needs of specific customers.
“We’ve seen that features like no delivery fees and extra benefits really resonate with our customers,” says Bienek, “but then there’s the question, to what degree do you localise it? We’re a hyper-local business, so we try to make a concerted effort to engineer the programme to align with the preferences of local customers. We are really focused on thinking customer first and considering what kind of things our customers value in different markets.”
Looking to the future, Bienek says that he sees Wolt+ as “one of many drivers” for the overall business, going forward, as it strives to offer greater benefits to its customers and business to its merchants and couriers.
“At its core, it’s about how we make it more convenient for customers, by offering different kinds of products and different categories on the platform in the most affordable possible way,” he says.
