In the most recent edition of ESM, we spoke to a number of retailers across Europe about some of the technological innovations they have implemented into their businesses over the past year. We caught up with Lawrence Hene, chief product officer, Ocado, to discuss the online operator's recent investment in autonomous delivery services.
In October of last year, Ocado Group announced a £10 million (€11.7 million) investment in Wayve, a self-driving technology start-up, as it seeks to expand its autonomous grocery delivery solutions. The announcement followed a similar investment in Oxford-based autonomous vehicle software company Oxbotica, as the group continues to seek out ways to make last-mile deliveries more efficient.
ESM: What will the recent investment mean for Ocado’s logistics operation?
Lawrence Hene: Our collaboration with autonomous mobility start-up Wayve includes a trial that will see their tech fitted onto a selection of Ocado retail delivery vans in the UK. This trial will help Ocado explore first-hand how Wayve can handle the congested streets and challenging manoeuvres that last-mile delivery technology needs to navigate.
Ocado is disrupting the economics of online grocery fulfilment throughout the whole value chain. Innovation in autonomous grocery deliveries and navigating complex urban environments will play a key role in driving ever-better operational economics for our partners in the long term.
Why is Ocado investing so much in autonomous logistics solutions?
We are constantly looking for ways to drive value for us and our partners, and investments like these are important parts of our strategy, to stay ahead of the game. Last-mile delivery is a significant proportion of the online fulfilment cost for a lot of grocers, so providing a compelling delivery experience to customers, at a low cost, will be crucial in winning in the online channel, long term.
Ocado already provides a profitable end-to-end model, but we always aim to constantly drive better economics for our partners, and we will keep raising the bar for what a great customer experience looks like online.
Ocado was one of the big winners of the lockdown period. What key learnings did the company take from this period that have gone on to shape future strategy?
The pandemic has been an inflection point for the online channel worldwide. More people are coming to grocery e-commerce than ever before, and they’re sticking with it. The question at the top of grocery boardroom agendas worldwide is how to meet this demand, capture and hold market share in a busy marketplace, and scale capacity in a profitable way in the long term.
For us and our partners, this means continuing to invest in the customer experience, to ensure they are delivering the standout best service in their market. It also means setting ambitious targets for extending our competitive advantage in the channel, and leveraging the full ecosystem of fulfilment we provide to our partners.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Technology news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
