- What future for quick Commerce ?

Gorillas, Cajoo, Flink or even Glovo offer a vertical model combining dark stores, picking and delivery. These companies rent B-locations for urban hubs, with a street address with access for delivery bikers. They purchase and store products, prepare orders and deliver them in a few minutes. All of them focus on dense urban areas like Berlin, London, Milan and Madrid.

The German company Flink installs dark stores (300 sq.m with 2,000 products) in catchment areas of 150,000 to 200,000 people. Active in Germany, the Netherlands and in France, it is aiming for a minimum density of 21,000 people per km². “We deliver in 10 minutes for €1.8,” says Charles d’Harambure, C.E.O. of Flink in France. “Deliveries are made by electric bicycle, 7 days a week and until midnight. What is new is instant delivery, which the supermarket sector has not yet achieved. In concrete terms, there is no longer any need to book and block a delivery slot. At Flink, staff use manual picking, collecting 6 items per minute. The average basket is €30 for 15 items. In France, Flink is aiming for profitability by 2023 via 50 hubs operating at full capacity, each operating 100 orders per day. It does not disclose weekly orders.

While venture capitalists seem to be seduced, many retailers are skeptical. What is the volume of the convenience food market? How profitable is it? “Their average basket is less than €20. When you deliver in 10 minutes, the cost per parcel is €7 as it’s impossible to pool the delivery”, said a retailer. “If they want to pool delivery to have staff delivering several orders in one go, they should promise a 30-minutes delivery. I don’t see how a Gorillas can become profitable with such a unit cost”.