Just Eat has outlined major plans to increase listings with small shops, citing its partnership with Booker and cost-saving benefits for stores as key to this strategy.
The home delivery firm partnered with the wholesaler in 2022, offering retailers who use Just Eat’s services up to 7% rebate on purchases through Booker. Although Just Eat works with other convenience chains such as One Stop and Co-op, the relationship with Booker is its only major wholesale partnership.
Speaking during the launch of its UK economic report on 30 April, Just Eat UK managing director Claire Pointon said: “What we’ve got now is 1m customers shopping grocery. We have 8,000 retailer partners out of a total base of 88,000 and that will only expand. We’ve got conversations with many other retail partners about quick convenience.
“What we want to do is work with wholesalers like Booker to reduce cost and increase the scale of buying for our independent estate. We helped Booker customers make £11m in total cashback last year. For us it’s very much a partnership.”
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Asked by Better Retailing whether Just Eat was seeking to expand its wholesale partnerships beyond Booker, Pointon added: “We’ve very much made a commitment to working with Booker and Makro, and adding value back to our partners. If there’s any feedback that’s not happening enough at scale, that’d be news to us.”
Just Eat UK sales director Leigh Phillipson also confirmed the company was not looking at any further wholesale partnerships. Commenting on further support for stores, Phillipson told Better Retailing: “We’ve made a large investment in terms of a support package for partners. For example, can we support them on the price of energy that they’re getting?
“Grocery is a newer part to our business and I think there’s going to be more venues which open up there. We have a large independent grocery estate that’s growing very quickly, but a local shop is going to find it more challenging compared to bigger chains who have their own buying power.
“The Booker relationship is key and that’s where we’re investing our time. We’re looking at other areas which Booker don’t cover. Could we explore with help on sourcing delivery bikes. Other avenues we could explore are support with signage and printing.”
More generally, Pointon added retailers partnered with Just Eat were seeing repeat purchases, while attracting more demand from a younger customer base of 18 to 24-year-olds.
Meanwhile, Bestway has partnered with Deliveroo for the first time, offering its fast-food customers an exclusive 8% rebate. The wholesaler confirmed this would not be extended to retailers.
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