Boots, a British pharmacy chain and health & beauty retailer, is reportedly going to make its items accessible through Deliveroo, as the delivery service seeks to grow beyond restaurant orders.
According to reliable reports, Boots will be the latest big retail chain to make this move. Boots stores in Birmingham, London, Nottingham, and Edinburgh would be among the 14 initially accessible in the said trial, which begins at the start of this week.
Customers will be able to order painkillers and medications for minor ailments such as hay fever, colds, and coughs for home delivery through the new initiative. Toiletries, snacks, baby products, and makeup items will also be among the 400 items initially offered from the retailer.
If the Boots arrangement is expanded nationally, it will contribute to Deliveroo's burgeoning business of delivering groceries and other items other than takeout meal orders.
Deliveroo, founded by London-based investment banker, Will Shu, initially intended to just capitalize on a gap in the food delivery market. However, now the company has begun focusing on diversifying its portfolio. In the first half of 2021, groceries accounted for 7% of Deliveroo's transaction volumes. Today, the firm has agreements with Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Aldi, and the Co-op among the UK's biggest supermarkets.
The on-demand grocery industry, which is still in its early stages, has become extremely competitive, with well-funded new competitors such as Weezy, Getir, Gorillas, and Fancy entering the landscape. They are investing substantially in networks that can deliver a relatively modest number of items to clients in tier-1 cities in minutes.
After it kicked off its IPO, Deliveroo had faced a turbulent first few months on the London Stock Exchange, suffering one of the biggest share price declines in LSE's history on the first day of trading.
However, the firm's valuation has slowly increased since its April lows, with it closing above its 390p listing value for the first time last week, a month after announcing that sales were doing better than projected. On Monday (23 Aug), shares closed at 389p, shy of its IPO price and valuing it at £6.7bn.
Source credit: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/aug/24/boots-launches-on-demand-delivery-trial-with-deliveroo