Coles is teaming up with country’s biggest food platform Uber Eats to deliver hot food to homes in less than 30 minutes. Coles is the first supermarket to do so.

To date, Uber Eats has done supremely well in the Australian market. In fact, up until quite recently, Melbourne was the #1 city in the world for the amount of Uber Eats orders per population. That’s quite an achievement.

The collaboration lets users order ready-to-eat meals direct to their door with no cooking required. The menu includes BBQ hot roast chicken, roast pork, pork ribs and lamb shanks.

It’s an interesting proposition because it actually meets a need that existing companies don’t provide:

• Marley Spoon and Hello Fresh – deliver pre-portioned & healthy meals, but requires cooking.
• Dinner Ladies – have ready-made meals, some of which require cooking and some of which can just be warmed up.
• Deliveroo, Foodora & Menulog – food delivery platforms, which deliver a huge range of healthy and unhealthy ready to eat meals (typically a 45 – 60 minute delivery proposition).
• BWS and Jimmy Brings are the only players in the market that currently boast a guaranteed 30 min delivery, but it’s hardly a proposition that would broadly appeal to families, unless a bottle of wine is all you’re having for dinner.

It’s the convenience factor which is critical for this play.

As per the commercial model for the Uber Eats service there will still be a $5 fee involved. Deliveries will be available between 10am and 8pm. All users need to do is order using the Uber Eats app.

The trial is only available in Pagewood currently, but if successful, the delivery service will transform the way the supermarket giant works and could soon be available across the country.

Interestingly, the insight that drove this trial was Coles delivery drivers observing Uber Eats bags on benches when delivering online orders.

Let’s see where this leads.

Max Savransky is Loyalty Director of Loyalty & Reward Co, a leading loyalty consulting firm based in Sydney. He has 10 years’ experience within the loyalty industry including roles at Mastercard Loyalty (Pinpoint), Silverneedle (Next & Sage Hotels) and Pureprofile. As Loyalty & CRM Manager at HOYTS, he launched the highly successful partnership with Qantas Frequent Flyer, including a world-first Qantas Points in-store redemption proposition. He is an active cryptocurrency trader.

Max regularly contributes to www.blockchainloyalty.io, a global resource centre for everything blockchain loyalty.

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