Co-op is launching a new million-pound rapid delivery grocery app, ‘Peckish’, offering a technologically-advanced service to thousands of independent retailers in a grocery retailer first.

Peckish will enable small, often family-owned, independent grocery businesses, shops and other co-operative retail societies to provide an online grocery shopping and delivery service to their local customers.

The app looks to overcome barriers that independent retailers face when moving to sell online, including cost, scale and resource, allowing smaller-scale bricks and mortar retailers to have a presence online.

The convenience retailer is making an initial £1m investment for year one of Peckish, following a successful store trial last year. It is targeting first year sign-ups of over 1,000 stores, with potential to treble that by year three.

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Co-op is currently the leading quick commerce supermarket across all major platforms, including Deliveroo, just Eat and Uber Eats. More than 86% of the UK population has access to its groceries online, via its own shop and its strategic partners.

Shoppers will be able to use Peckish to choose from the range of products an individual retailer has selected to put online. Retailers select the price, enabling them to match in-store prices. The retailers also choose whether to deliver orders themselves, or for them to be managed through Co-op’s order management system and delivered locally through delivery partners including Just Eat and Uber Direct. These deliveries can be completed in as little as 30 minutes.  

Peckish will link with a retailer’s EPOS system, saving manual tasks such as pricing, stock control and management. Retailers who sign up will also receive a range of support including data, trends and insight from Co-op’s quick commerce team, point of sale material, window stickers, leaflets, shelf talkers, digital and social media assets, posters and banners.

Co-op food managing director Matt Hood said: “We are experts in running small, local convenience shops and the leading quick comm operator, and I’m excited about being able to share this expertise with all our neighbouring independent retailers, to help them extend their customer reach and services online, which in turn, can help transform their businesses.

“We know that smaller local shops, like our own, operate at the heart of the local community life. More than a shop, they are a community hub, creating value locally through job creation, community participation and their support of local suppliers.

“The ‘shop local’ sentiment is strong amongst consumers, and Peckish can help more retailers connect quickly online with their customers, providing greater consumer choice locally, and promoting healthier and more viable high streets and communities.”