Belgian retail group Colruyt has launched a new online platform that will make it easier for customers to do grocery shopping for other customers.
The new collaborative platform, Apporto, allows shoppers of Colruyt, Okay, Bio-Planet or Spar to collect groceries for other customers, and deliver the goods to their home.
The service is accessible through the Apporto smartphone app, or through a telephone operator for customers that do not wish to use a digital solution.
Colruyt says that the system is easy to use. Customers who are looking to have their groceries delivered enter their shopping list into the Apporto app, as well as the time and place for delivery.
Then, when customers who are going to the store enter the app, they can view the list, add it to their own, and pick up groceries for themselves, as well as another customer. They then deliver the groceries to the customer's home, and receive payment for the shopping.
Community Effort
Colruyt says that it is investing in this service as a way to connect people and create sustainable social relations.
"Apporto is a real peer-to-peer platform," said Frans Colruyt, COO of Colruyt Group. "In a time of increasing social isolation and people keeping more to themselves, our intention - as a retailer - is to ensure people have more social contacts. Apporto easily makes the link between customers and anyone who is unable to get to the shop, for any reason."
"It brings people in contact and offers them the necessary supporting functionalities to organise themselves within a community and in a trusted environment," he added. "The app allows you to pass on and combine grocery lists, but also to evaluate other users by means of a 'rating' system."
Similar delivery services based on a sharing economy have been introduced by other retailers across Europe, including Coop Danmark's Fetch, and Carrefour's Merci Voisin in France.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Sarah Harford. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
