Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths have announced they will be resuming normal home delivery and click-and-collect services this week.
Woolworths has doubled its online capacity over the past month. The group will now open up tens of thousands of extra weekly home delivery windows for its online customers, following similar measures by Coles, after previously restricting online orders to vulnerable and remote Australians due to the current pandemic.
The extra capacity will be fulfilled out of hundreds of Woolworths Supermarkets across Australia and a new “Pop-Up” Delivery Hub in Notting Hill, Melbourne opening at the end of the week.
Coles resumed home delivery and click-and-collect services for all customers on Wednesday 22nd April.
Following Coles announcement, Woolworths said on Wednesday 22 April that its partnerships with last-mile couriers Sherpa and Drive Yello will benefit tens of thousands of customers each week.
Wooloworths team members will hand pick online orders for customers before passing onto Sherpa and Drive Yello couriers to fulfil the last-mile delivery.
Sherpa and Drive Yello have signed up more than 5,000 new delivery drivers onto their on-demand platforms to help meet the soaring demand for online groceries.
Woolworths’ Melbourne Pop-Up Delivery Hub has been setup at a 7,000 sqm warehouse in Notting Hill and is expected to service more than 5,000 orders each week. Orders are capped at 40 items and will be delivered next day.
The Hub won’t open to walk-up shoppers but will hold a curated range of popular online products and provide employment to more than 400 Melburnians.
Amanda Bardwell, WooliesX managing director said the Pop-Up Delivery Hub in Notting Hill is designed to complement the work online teams have already been doing for priority assistance customers in Victoria.
“We’ve worked hard behind the scenes to find innovative ways to provide much-needed additional delivery capacity across Australia. In partnership with Sherpa and Drive Yello, we now have a highly flexible and scalable way to meet the needs of many more of our online customers in the weeks and months ahead,” she said.
“We’ll keep a close eye on customer feedback to see if there is value in standing up more sites like this across Australia.”
Woolworths and Coles both stated that their first priority remains to provide for the most vulnerable in the community, however the supermarket groups want to serve more regular online customers, including Woolworths Delivery Unlimited subscribers.
Karen Donaldson, Coles general manager of Coles Online and strategic project said Coles has recruited hundreds of extra staff to increase delivery windows.
“By reorganising our delivery windows we have been able to increase the number of slots available for customers, and we have also recruited hundreds of extra Customer Service Agents to help us meet increased demand for Coles Online deliveries,” she said.