There have always been a number of apps to choose from when ordering food from your favorite restaurants to be delivered at your doorstep, but Deliveroo, a UK-based delivery start-up, is doing something that hasn’t been done before in the country- delivering your choice of alcohol to your doorstep inside twenty minutes, provided your order is worth at least £15. The firm believes that delivering alcohol, especially from premium retailers, is a natural expansion to their service and are hopeful that the service will grow before they expand to other European countries like France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain where they already have a major presence as far as delivering food is concerned.
What sets Deliveroo apart from other delivery chains is that they cater to the premium segment of the culinary industry. Their approach to alcohol will be no different which is made clear by the fact that the minimum order amount would only match the price tags of the more expensive wines. The firm will also not alter its traditional delivery mechanism and will use its own delivery men to fulfill orders instead of asking restaurants and wine retailers to invest towards additional manpower. Initially, the alcohol delivery service will let people order their favorite brands of alcohol from eight Majestic Wines shops in London, as many as 20 BrewDog shops across the country and a few other retailers. However, the firm will continue to expand the service not only in the UK but also elsewhere in Europe. “At the moment we’re focused on launching this new service in the U.K., but we’re really excited at the potential of launching this in our international markets — we’ll keep you posted on any further roll out plans,” said the firm.
Deliveroo’s announcement comes at a time when Uber is expanding the footprints of its UberEATS delivery service to the UK. While Deliveroo caters to premium restaurants, UberEATS, previously known as UberFRESH, caters to a few pop up restaurants and usually offers two to four dishes to customers which it promises to fulfill inside ten minutes. As such, the service will not be a direct rival to the former until it expands into a full-fledged delivery service catering to all kinds of orders. The Deliveroo app also currently benefits from being integrated with Apple Pay and Android Pay and given that its new alcohol delivery service caters to a niche market with little or no competitors, it should turn out to be a success apart from offering customers the option to order their favorite wines at any time of their choosing.