In the future, the delivery service wants to transport everything that fits in the light blue backpack cube.
(Photo: IMAGO/Michael Gstettenbauer)
Berlin So far, the Wolt drivers have mainly driven pizza, burgers or sushi from restaurants to apartments, now theoretically everything that can be stowed in the light blue backpack cubes should be added. “Every dealer can offer us as a delivery option,” says the responsible manager of the program, called Wolt Drive, Patrick Dümer, the Handelsblatt.
The company, which belongs to the US market leader DoorDash, is thus competing with bicycle courier services, but also with larger providers such as DPD, Hermes, DHL and young start-ups such as Liefergrün.
Wolt currently employs more than 4,000 couriers across Germany. Many of them work part-time. The company needs most of its drivers at peak times around lunchtime and in the evening. If they move their bikes and make money in between, the margin improves.
“Of course, receiving more orders throughout the day also contributes to efficiency. That increases capacity utilization,” says Dümer. In Germany alone, the Lieferando owner JustEat Takeaway.com and Uber deliver restaurant meals in addition to Wolt.
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The entire industry is struggling to stay in the black in this low-margin business. DoorDash only completed the expensive, seven billion euro takeover of the Finnish start-up Wolt in the summer and is also stuck in the red.
>> Read also: Delivery Hero has examined the Wolt takeover – but the price was too high
In the face of higher interest rates and the slump in technology stocks on the stock markets, the company wants to get out of the red quickly. For that, Wolt has to do even better. In June alone, the most recent month for which data is available, Wolt was down $45 million.
Delivery Hero also offers logistics-as-a-service
The idea of making better use of existing driver fleets is not new. The MDax group Delivery Hero, which does not operate in Germany, introduced its logistics-as-a-service offer in 25 countries in December. A spokeswoman said customers could use the Foodpanda platform to send parcels by courier from A to B with one click. In Pakistan, for example, medicines would be delivered.
Wolt wants to do something similar. “We have developed various solutions for retailers. One is API integration and the other is our web portal, which retailers can use to order a driver. In addition, we have plugins for larger platforms like Shopify,” says Dümer, who has worked for Wolt for five and a half years. Now Wolt wants to quickly convince customers to use the new offer. Telekom has already been won as a partner in Croatia and the Kapital Bank in Azerbaijan, which has credit cards delivered via Wolt.
“Online shopping is here to stay, and people like to get things quickly and know when they will arrive. With us, that can be the case within an hour.” Wolt manager Patrick Dümer
In Germany, only the Asian chain Sticks’n’Sushi is initially using the offer, for which no commission is due, but a fee per order – depending on the quantity and size of the goods. Sticks’n’Sushi handles the purchase on its own platform, the Wolt driver only comes into play later as a delivery option. The Wolt app is not required.
Dümer is convinced that demand will continue to rise: “Online shopping will remain, and people like to have things quickly and know when they will arrive. With us, that can be the case within an hour.”
The market for express deliveries is considered difficult because it is associated with high costs. Hermes felt that too. The company had to close its subsidiary Liefery again. With a view to the expenses, Wolt does not want to build up any further capacities for the time being: “We are using the existing fleet for Wolt Drive,” says Dümer, who does not want to give any information on the amount of the investments made.
More: Liefergrün: Sustainable delivery service wants to compete with Hermes and DPD.