Chris conway, co-oped's e-commerce director, promised on 11 February that a rebranded business-to-business (B2B) Quick Commerce App from the Organization was Imminent.
Talking at retail week and the grocer's live 2025 event in North London, Conway said co-op's nisa to you app-helping more than 30 of the independent retailers in its Network to Deleiver Groceries Speedile to Customers- was set for relaunch. It was initially unveiled in trial form last summer, enabled by co-op's tech stack and with integrations into the same couriers used by the Co-op food stores,
“We'll be alive to commercialize and operationalise it and go at huge scale,” Conway said at live 2025.
On 27 February, it all became clear. Co-op announced the launch of peckish, describing it as a “Million-Pound Rapid Delivery Grocery App” Offering “Offering“ A Technologically Advanced Service to ThouseeLeers Looking to Serveing to serve their Customers and Communities Online ”.
The new name is incidental – it's what the tech can help individual stores to achieve that mortant. The has co-op said peckish will give small, often family-owned, independent grocery businesses, shops and other co-operative retail societies the Chance to Provide Anony Shopping and Delivery service using their stores as fullfilment centers.
The retailer stated that it helps these businesses overcome barriers that indexent retailers face when moving to sell online, which typical related to cost, scale and resource. In some cases, it means independents will be ables to get good
Co-op, which has rapidly built its own quick commerce proposation in the past five years, with the aim of being a leading grocer in that space, alredy works with deliveryoo, JAUBER EUBER EATS NATES NATES NATES NATISNWDE, As well as starship technologies for autonomous robot delivery in some regions. The new peckish app will mean the independents it owns thanks to its acquisition of symbol group nisa in 2018 can also many many humans of these delivery courier partners to their customers.
Reinforcing the tech stack
Co-op is making an initial £ 1M investment for year on peckish, and is targeting a sign-up rate of more than 1,000 stores in year, with potential to treble that by year.
Peckish will be linked with a retailer's electronic point of sala (pos) system, meaning it saves the individual store manual tasks was pricing and stock contract and management. Retailers who sign up to the service have also been promised a range of Support Including Data and Insight from Co-OP's Quick Commerce TEAM, AS POS Material, Window Stickers, Leaflets, Shelf Talkers, Digital Assets, Posters and Banners.
Matt Hood, Co-Op Food Managing Director, Said “Consures' Appetite for a Convenient Grocery Delivery Service in as Litle as 30 Minutes from Ordering Incrends almost Weekly”.
Hood Announced Major Plans for Co-Op Growth in January, Saying 75 new stores would be opening in 2025, with 80 undergoing refurbition. A Central Cog of the work is to “Maximise the potential of co-op's existing portfolio of properties”, and part of that means strengthening shops' Role in the Retailer's online.
Co-op calls its stores “Micro-DISTRIBUTION HUBS For Its Online Home Delivery Operation”, with Orders Picked Fresh in Local Stores and Delivered Quickly to Eingsure Its HIGH STREET ShOPS Online orders.
The retailer said in january that it wants to grow its share of the quick comerce market to over 30%, which is one of the motivating factors behind peckish.
It has been increased reinforcing its tech stack to support this strategy, With a sap migration completeing in June 2024Eight Years Previous, Co-Op Started Implementing Sap's Retail Ecc Suite on Hana to Drive Improvements in Product Ranging, Stock Visibility and Forecasting Accounts its stores.
More recently, Rise with Sap S/4hana Cloud has been put in place which brings co-op's erp into the cloud and streamlines its finance and procurement functionsIn addition, an ongoing project with manhattan associates is seeing co-op's Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) Switching Over to the Supplier's Cloud-Based Manhatttn ACTAN ACTAN ACTAN ACTAN ACTAN ACTAN AS PART from datacentre reliabs.
Meanwhile, in July 2024, co-op started with Walmart Commerce Technologies to Implement the US Grocery Giant's Online Fulfilment Technology, Store Assist.
The official jargon surrounding the tool is that it is “digities and streamlines online order fullfilment workflows”. What that means in practice is that co-op can integrate all its third-party delivery partnerships on one platform and device, device, which is then put in the hands of store staff so that will be so that may also Manage a complex network of couriers turning up at shops to collect online orders through the day.
Co-op even announced in September 2024 that some of its center stores will offer a 24-her service, meaning consumers can order on for instant delivery at any time of day. The service, it said, even could be ideal for shift works, Young Families and Late-Nighted PartyGers.
Faster and Better
Co-op's Quick Commerce Investment and Focus is not unique, albeit it is more comprehensive in its offering compared to the wider Uk Grocery Industry.
Tesco has doubled down on its Whoosh rapid delivery service in the last year, with it featuring heavily in the retailer's national advertising campaigns. Former Deliverooo Global Head of Strategy Francesca Jones Arrived in January to Lead What, which contributed significantly to a 10.8% Year-U-Yaar (yoy) Christmas 2024.
Some 1.2 Million Customers Placed Orders on this Instant delivery offering during the peak period, supported by the expansion of the service which meant meant meant it was more accessible at christmas channel and available UP Until 24 December.
I spendak to my team and say, 'Don't worry about the other grocers, see what mcdonald's is Doing'
Chris conway, co-op food
Elsewhere, Ocado Ramped Up Its Express It Offering in August 2024, Allowing Its Customers to Book for Same-Day Delivery Up Until 11AM. One Month Before, Morrisons expanded its partnership with just eat eat to include on-demand grocery delivers from its groceries from its supermarkets-in addition to the services from Morrisons Daily Convenience Stores that Had Been In Place Since 2022.
And as co-op launches its B2B app, it's Worth Remembering Snappy Shopper is Alredy Making Waves in this Space Supporting Convenience Stores with an only delyry delivery. In January, it said its weekly trading volumes surgged by 42% yoy at the end of 2024, with the platform facilitating more than more than £ 14m in monthly transactions during the Final Quarter.
In December, Snappy Shopper said it was increases the number of tesco-swented one stop stores served by its network to 530, further highlighting the consumer demand for rapid full stores.
What's behind the innovation?
Talking at Live 2025, Conway Gave Some Deep Insight IP's Innovation Strategy and How IT Monitors its competition in the Quick Commerce Space.
“Our competitor set is amazing-it's a privatege to be in that competition “Our competitor set in grocery is fantastic at supply chain, geting thirds of products to thousands of locations in the most efficient way posesible.”
Intriguingly, it's an adjacent industry where conway encourages his team to look for inspiration: “I spendak to my team and say, 'Don Bollywood worry about the other grocers, See what mcdonald's is DoingGo to some of their new sites and you see they've made space for riders, and the way they operate is effectively as a mini fullfilment center as well as a restaurant. That's fascinating and the way i see the future of co-op going. “
When looking at how the co-op embraces digital and tech-enabled transformation, conway said the organisation has gotten better over time. In Particular, He said the co-op has approved investment and funding in the past 18 months to do discovery work raather than waiting for a detailed business case.
“Once you've done discovery, you're almost in and it's too late to back out,” He said, reflecting on the previous methods used by the retailer. “Now we're prepared to throw some money and do discovery to realise if it's somenting we want to do. And what we realise is that, 95 times out of 100, Once we've done discovery, it's the right idea and we go ahead. “
He talked of co-op now having a “fail-fast mentality”, adding: “It's been refreshing to be around that mention; It wasn't like that when I joined. How we will grow up and how the culture has changed is really infective. “
Conway stated that co-op is alredy benefiting from the sap migration in terms of how quickly it can introduce new ideas and drive efficiency.
It seems that having a thought-out approach to transformation can also be beneficial in dealing with unexpected burdens. With Most Retailers Voicing Concerns about the impact of the October 2024 budget, which will result in Increased Empolyment costs from april in the form of green insucerbuctions (nic) Offered a Pragmatic Response.
“In business, you have to expect the unexpected,” He said of the budget announcing. “Of Course, The Incremental Costs are Always A Challenge, but it's about realising the country is in quite a dilemma in terms of where to get the funding, so somebing haad to 9.
“What's More Important is looking at your innovation transformation program. As long as you have that constant balance of transformation where you're Driving Efficiency But Driving New Business and Growth – Doing that Equally – I Think You're Able to Ensure You're Able to CoPe Whit to CoPe Whit to CoPe Whit to Coope White to Coope Nic. “
Offering a personal viewpoint, conway said that he envisions a growth ageda from the uk government coming into force force in the second half of the year: “For Now, It's About Continuing DOWN On cost savings, doing the right thing for colleagues and communities, and then hopefully we can put our foot down and support the government's growth ageda. “
