Takeaway.com, the world’s largest food ordering marketplace, facilitates over 1.1 billion food orders annually. With the rapid rise of grocery delivery services like Flink and Gorillas, we saw an opportunity to expand beyond restaurant meals.
Our mission was simple: Research and validate if we can introduce a grocery ordering proposition and increase our active user base. The goal was to determine whether groceries could strengthen our market position, drive user engagement, and increase order volume - lifting our active users numbers.
How can Just Eat Takeaway (JET) successfully expand into grocery delivery in a way that aligns with both user needs and business goals? With competitors already established in the space, our challenge was to identify a compelling value proposition that would set JET apart while boosting our active user base. How would we be able to achieve this?
We needed to understand whether a grocery offering would:
1. Increase engagement and order frequency among our existing users.
2. Provide enough value and differentiation to compete with dedicated grocery delivery services.
3. Leverage JET’s existing logistics and marketplace model without requiring a major operational overhaul.
Understanding product-market fit is the foundation for growth, so it was essential to undertake this task initially. Our strategy focused on three key phases:
Validate the opportunity
The base for this concept came from a joined research study between Unilever and JET. It highlighted an opportunity to provide "icecream" as a category on our platform and a user need. This tied into the broader "groceries space" which we had not validated. We performed two more market studies in England and Germany on 4 focus groups – 2 with respondents from urban areas, 2 with respondents from suburban/ rural areas. Half of groups online grocery shoppers, half not using online to buy groceries (considerers) This research informed us to the potential need states of grocery delivery, as well as inform the business as to what consumers expect from a grocery offering.
Test the concept
Our research showed 4 different options for a proposition. After performing a RISK assessment with our Partners & Logistic department, we decided to proceed our testing phase with the proposition catered to us being a partner to one external vendor, Albert Heijn - The biggest groceries company in the Netherlands, as logistics for different vendors was nearly impossible to guarantee.
To test our concept viability we launched a fake door test in the Netherlands, adding a "Groceries" menu item in the app. The test delivered a great results of 16% CTR (click through rate)among young users (16-25), highest of all our menu categories. This was enough evidence for our board to proceed and build the MVP.
Build & launch an MVP
Our MVP is heavily reliant on external partners - it leverages strengths of both parties. JET does not have to own and store inventory, which would cut heavily into any profit margin, but we can focus on delivering under 20 minutes. Partnering with Albert Heijn, we introduced a live test in select Dutch and German cities. The MVP focused on seamless grocery ordering while leveraging our existing infrastructure - providing we could deliver within 20 minutes after order. Two main focus points for this test were: Adoption and feasability of delivery times.
The minimum viable product
With evidence of demand (A 16% CTR - highest among younger users on the fake door test) we moved into building a minimum viable product (MVP) to test grocery delivery in a real environment. Instead of investing in our own warehouses (functioning as dark stores), we partnered with Albert Heijn, a leading supermarket chain, to offer grocery delivery through our platform.
The MVP was launched in select cities in Germany and the Netherlands. The initial version focused on basic grocery essentials rather than a full supermarket selection. We then optimized the checkout and delivery experience to match existing user behaviors on the platform - providing we only supply couriers from the "JET" poole, couriers we have contracted and can track to keep our promise of delivering in under 20 minutes.
Our MVP provided us the insight that our partners should already pick our orders to be able to deliver in time (and that we need a seperate order management dashboard for them on client end). We also found out edge-cases like "how might we deliver orders that are heavier than legally allowed for 1 courier". Our MVP led us from inital roll out in Amsterdam to a nation wide rollout.
The MVP trial yielded significant outcomes in numerous major sectors: User adoption & engagement saw 63% of our target customers placing at least a single grocery order, indicating powerful immediate momentum. Average grocery order value was €27, while restaurant order value was €19. A boost in order volume was evident as 12% of all the orders processed during the pilot concerned groceries, and this aided platform expansion without jeopardizing restaurant orders. Market positioning & strategy evaluation showed that our active user group to grow 9% during the MVP phase.
Detailed feedback pinpointed delivery speed as a critical distinguishing feature—customers desired the same swift delivery they receive from restaurants, but our partnering supermarkets couldn't consistently fulfill these anticipations. This realization led us to focus on improving the order picking and handling process on client side for our next iteration.
ADOPTION RATE
63%
OVERALL ORDERS
+12%
OVERALL ORDER VALUE
+48%
ACTIVE USER BASE
+9%
In Conclusion
I'm more than proud to have been involved in the inception phase of this challenging project. It was an awesome learning experience, designing for growth and making in impact that has realized millions in revenue for Just Eat Takeaway.
In hindsight, our research showed that the business model of some flash delivery competitors were never viable to begin with, and would potentially never be able to create revenue. We pivoted early during our research and created a space where we could succesfully create value. Looking back: our competitors have vanished, the main competitor (Flinck) is now a collaborator on the JET platform and groceries is a thriving vertical within the Just Eat Takeaway ecosystem.