Woolworths enlists Uber for deliveries

A partnership between Woolworths and Uber will see thousands more grocery orders delivered to shoppers’ homes each week.

Woolworths’ distribution centre at Minchinbury in Sydney’s west. Picture: Nikki Short

A partnership between Woolworths and Uber will see thousands more grocery orders delivered to shoppers each week as the supermarket giant looks to keep up with surging demand for its home-delivery service.

It comes after Woolworths last week resumed deliveries for all customers, joining up with Sherpa and Drive Yello in a move that allowed it to boost the number of delivery windows by tens of thousands each week.

“The demand for our home-delivery service has grown at an unprecedented rate across Australia in recent months,” Woolworths director of e-commerce, Annette Karantoni, said.

“As the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve, it’s vital we keep scaling our delivery capacity to meet the essential needs of our communities.”

The new partnership kicks off in Townsville on Monday and will be rolled out to more cities in the coming weeks.

Uber general manager for Australia and New Zealand, Dom Taylor, said the deal would see Australians access vital supplies without having to leave their house.

“We look forward to using our platform to support Woolworths and the community and at the same time provide additional earning opportunities for driver partners,” he said.

Woolworths’ staff will hand-pick online orders for customers before passing them on to Uber drivers. Orders will be capped at 40 items and will be delivered the next day at the earliest, a Woolworths spokesman said. All deliveries will be contactless.

Coles and Woolworths in March were forced to restrict online deliveries to priority customers, including elderly and disabled shoppers and those in isolation, as demand for the service hit unprecedented levels due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The supermarket giants resumed full delivery and pick-up services last Wednesday after ramping up online capacity over a number of weeks. Its partnership with Sherpa and Drive Yello saw the last-mile delivery operators add more than 5000 drivers to their platforms to cope with the extra demand.

Woolworths is still offering its priority assistance service to the elderly, people with disability and those in mandatory isolation and has delivered to more than 300,000 vulnerable customers in need since mid-March.

Both retailers are due to post third-quarter updates this week, with the market expecting to see a jump in sales as panicked shoppers stocked up on essential goods in February and March

Coles’ quarterly numbers are expected on Wednesday, while Woolworths follows with its own results on Thursday. Both are tipped to report double-digit growth in sales over the three months.

In an update to customers on Friday, Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci revealed that the recent demand surge was starting to calm, with buying limits lifted on a number of items, including paracetamol and ibuprofen.

But shoppers are still rushing for toilet paper, he said, with the retailer selling 14.1 million rolls last week, more than the prior week’s 11.5 million. Toilet roll sales are down slightly on the highs of 20 million it saw just a few weeks ago.