Colruyt Group’s online shopping service, Collect&Go, is trialling a new service in Belgium that allows customers collect their online deliveries in specially refrigerated lockers.
In a supermarket first for the country, customers can now do their online shopping and have it delivered to their home the same day or collect it themselves in the refrigerated lockers. As part of the move, Okay, Colruyt Group’s neighbourhood supermarket, will take charge of the range, which focuses on fresh produce, the group said.
According to the firm, shoppers who place an order via vandaag.collectandgo.be before 1 p.m. can pick up their product on the same day from 3 pm onwards in a refrigerated locker or have them delivered to their home by a cargo bike after 4 pm.
Collecting groceries in a refrigerated locker is still a unique feature in Belgium. The lockers are permanently refrigerated at 4°C to ensure optimum quality while products are never in the locker more than four hours before the selected time slot for the same reason.
With the new service, Collect&Go is targeting customers looking for a quick solution for their fresh groceries. This includes people who do weekly shopping, for example, but need fresh produce in between. Through the feature, it is also seeking to target customers who want to put fresh produce on the table last minute.
Leen De Dobbeleer, Head of Innovation at Collect&Go, said: “We see that our customers in the city are less likely to do major shopping and so they are more likely to visit a neighbourhood store several times a week. Customers who live more in rural areas, in turn, need fresh produce in the middle of the week. We are now testing a quick and easy solution for both target groups: to either pick up their products or have them delivered to their homes at a time that suits them best.”
Okay not only provides the range, but also the delivery of the products. Specifically, Okay personnel will ensure that groceries are in the refrigerated lockers at the right time. Because of the type of shopping and the fact that they must fit in a locker, a minimum order value of €20 applies, as well as a maximum order value of €100. Collect&Go is currently testing this brand-new service in the Ghent region with grocery collection from the refrigerated lockers costing €2.49, Coruyt said.
