Q&A: Deliveroo chief operating officer Eric French on his mission to ‘change the way our customers shop and eat’

Less than a week after reporting a surge in profits driven by “strong growth” in grocery and an ever-growing coterie of non-food retail partners at home and abroad, Deliveroo appears to be going from strength to strength. 

The delivery app’s chief operating officer Eric French talks to Retail Week about its two latest retail partnerships, the opportunities for further growth in food presented by the demise of competitors like Getir, and its plans to expand outside of London and other major metropolitan areas. 

Deliveroo has launched two non-food tie-ups in recent weeks with The Perfume Store and B&Q. Why has it chosen to partner with these two retailers?

“Taking a step back, we launched our retail proposition in November 2023, responding to consumer interest for on-demand delivery in key retail categories and expanding how we bring the high street to people’s doors. For example, searches for perfume on Deliveroo have increased over 300% year on year and searches for paint and screws have increased by 74% and 35%, respectively, over the last six months.

“Part of our strategy is to work with major brands in categories like DIY, gifting and cosmetics that respond to this demand, so we’re thrilled to be partnering with The Perfume Shop and B&Q. The Perfume Shop range on Deliveroo will include more than 1,000 of their most popular products, and for B&Q we’re including more than 600 DIY products spanning categories such as paint, plumbing, electricals, tools and hardware.

“Our ambition is to change the way our customers shop and eat, and it’s great to partner with businesses that share this vision and support them to reach new customers.”

There are now six non-food retailers on the Deliveroo Shopping section of the app. Is there a target goal in terms of partners, and will we see more announcements in the coming weeks and months?

“It’s still early days for our retail proposition, but I’m excited by the growth of Deliveroo Shopping so far. We’re thrilled that more partners have come on board since its launch, with The Perfume Shop and B&Q joining major brands such as Screwfix, Boots and Ann Summers in the UK and a number of local independent stores on the platform. 

“At the same time, we’ve also been ramping up the range of non-food products that are available to customers from our grocery partners, and consumers can now find everything from electronics, toys, party items, pet care, flowers, baby products, stationery and much more on app.

“Looking beyond the UK, we’ve also been adding partners like Toys R Us and Holland & Barrett to our retail offering in the UAE and have recently launched retail in Kuwait and Hong Kong.

“While I’m not going to announce any new partnerships today, I’m excited by the pipeline of partners we’re talking to across key target categories, including flowers, gifting, health and beauty, pet care, home and kitchenware, baby and DIY.”

Deliveroo has partnered with retailers in the home and DIY, health and beauty and cosmetics categories. Are there any other non-food retail categories that Deliveroo would like to expand into?

“We’re always looking at how we can provide more of what our customers want. We do this by looking at our search data and using this as a playbook to inform our strategy. From this we’ve outlined key target retail categories, which include flowers, gifting, health and beauty, pet care, home and kitchenware, and DIY.

“ We plan to continue to drive awareness across our key target categories, by leveraging seasonal moments such as Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.

“We’ve also been seeing good engagement with developments to our in-app experience, such as proactively sharing recommendations with customers. For example, if you search for pet food, we’ll share pet-related options. Alongside this, we’ve seen positive results from our ‘send-a-gift’ feature.

Deliveroo has been focusing on non-food partnerships of late, but does the retreat of the likes of Getir and Gorillas present Deliveroo with opportunities in the on-demand grocery delivery space?

“We’ve seen strong growth in our grocery business over the first half of this year, with grocery reaching 14% of our gross transaction value. This has been driven by improved experience and awareness of our grocery offer and we’re also seeing customers ordering more mid-sized baskets of £30-£60.

“And we’ve now extended our top-up order functionality to all of our markets, allowing consumers to add grocery items to a restaurant order during check out. This has been one of our most effective ways of driving new users to the category, with the number of new-to-grocery consumers ordering through this function almost doubling in H1 2024 compared with 2023.

“What’s exciting is that we’re still early in the journey on grocery, with a strong runway for growth.”

A lot of the Deliveroo Shopping partnerships have been launched in London. Are there plans to expand any of these existing partnerships to other parts of the UK?

“Our ambition is to expand our retail offering to customers across the country, and Boots and Screwfix are already available for orders in major UK cities outside of London. Alongside this, we’re also growing Deliveroo Shopping through our expansion of non-food products on offer from our supermarket partners, which are available to customers in towns and cities across the UK.

“We’ve also brought on several independent stores, for example, florists, electrical, DIY retailers, and gift and toy stores. This builds on our mission to support local businesses and start-ups, offering them a bigger platform to engage with consumers as well as tools to support their businesses.

“When consumers go onto ‘Shopping’ they will now see a wide range of non-food products from retailers and grocers. I see the expansion of Deliveroo Shopping as fulfilling our ambitions to deliver the local high street to our customers, and this applies across the UK.”