Grocery delivery loaded with common sense
Since April 2021, the people of Valenciennes have seen the exclusive arrival of a brand new online supermarket, with a tempting promise: shopping at the same price as in shop, with the same range of products and free delivery. Many players in the market are launching into the fast delivery niche, such as Cajoo and Gorillas, which deliver in 15 and 10 minutes respectively. But Picnic is doing things differently.
Founded in the Netherlands, the company has taken the gamble of using today’s technology to reintroduce an old-fashioned concept: the milkman’s round. The promise is to deliver, free of charge, the same products as in the supermarket, at the lowest prices. To offer its customers the lowest prices and free delivery, the chain is optimising its delivery rounds with an algorithm that enables several customers in a neighbourhood to be delivered efficiently. Customers shop for 10,000 items, choose their delivery slot from the Picnic app, and receive free delivery on D+1 within a 20-minute window.
In the Netherlands, 300 developers are working on algorithms to optimise distribution models, obtain sales forecasts, adjust processes on a daily basis and improve the services offered on the app.
As well as low prices and free delivery, the benefits are numerous: reduced logistics costs, a clean business with zero waste, and avoided home-to-supermarket journeys for customers (one delivery round is equivalent to a dozen customers being delivered), all by electric car.
Picnic does little marketing, relying instead on word of mouth and organising local events in towns for families. It’s a winning recipe, with 20% of households in Valenciennes having downloaded the app in just six months.
Launched in the Netherlands in 2015 and then in Germany, the company is now starting to expand in France, choosing the Lille area as the location for four new sites!
France Hero Scaled E1619010570662 1836x1152 1An order preparation centre and three hubs in the Lille area
To facilitate Picnic’s integration, the Hello Lille teams are putting the company in touch with its Dutch peers in the country, in particular via the Dutch Business Network. Sharing best practices, French specificities and contacts, the network is a real asset for a Dutch company wishing to develop on the French market.
At Picnic, the supply chain is simplified as much as possible. Customers place their orders on the app before 10 p.m. in the evening, our suppliers deliver to us and we prepare the orders in the order preparation centre. They are then sent to our Hubs, which are the departure point for the electric carts that make the delivery rounds. This system allows us to offer free delivery and the lowest prices.
The choice of Hauts-de-France as a starting point is not insignificant, as the region meets the brand’s three main criteria:
- A region with a high population density
- Large numbers of families
- A large number of single-family homes
Neck-and-neck with Brittany and the East of France, our region was finally chosen, with Valenciennes as the first test town.
Priority is given to setting up in Paris. At Picnic we want to appeal to everyone, from families with two children to single people in a hurry. We’re not looking for purchasing power or online shopping habits. We want to encourage new people to do their shopping in a different way.
The brand has chosen Fretin as the location for its order preparation centre. There were two main reasons for this choice: its central location in the Hauts-de-France region, enabling it to deliver to hubs within a 150 km radius, from Amiens to Dunkirk, and the availability of a warehouse of around 20,000 m2.
For its hubs, Picnic is beginning to expand in the Lille area, with two sites in Wasquehal and Roncq, and another in the pipeline to the west of Lille. Picnic’s electric carts have been plying the roads of the city since 13 October, and are already making a few hundred deliveries every day. Eventually, there will be three hubs serving all the towns in the metropolitan area.
On the recruitment front, Picnic welcomes ten new employees every week! More than 400 people will be working at Fretin and its hubs in the metropolitan area. The company is recruiting a wide range of profiles, mainly order pickers and delivery drivers.
We’re very proud to have over 50% women in our delivery and preparation teams, which are traditionally made up more of men. It’s a real commitment on our part. Once the business is up and running, everyone will be employed on permanent contracts and we encourage internal promotion. For example, the managers of our Lille hubs are former delivery drivers from Valenciennes.
To recruit more specific profiles such as data scientists or business analysts, Picnic can call on the region’s business and engineering schools, which it met through the Hello Lille teams.
Since the summer of 2022, Picnic has been offering delivery to 10 towns in the Hauts-de-France region, with a new hub opening in each case. Good news for the Lille and regional labour market!
