Moscow, 21 April 2020 – X5 Retail Group N.V. (“X5” or the “Company”), a leading Russian food retailer (LSE and MOEX ticker: “FIVE”) announces the launch of an express delivery pilot for Perekrestok supermarkets in Moscow. In these challenging times of self-isolation, the new service will enable customers to replace daily shopping trips with online purchases delivered from a nearby Perekrestok. As orders are picked and packed right at the stores, they can be at a customer’s door in just one or two hours depending on the store location and order volume.
Perekrestok.Bystro offers customers a new channel for smaller grocery orders (delivered at regular supermarket prices) alongside Perekrestok.ru, the existing service for large stock-up shopping.
At this stage, the new express service will be able to deliver to several hundreds of customers daily, including the elderly and other people under lockdown and who cannot leave the house to do their essential shopping. The pilot is running at nine Perekrestok stores in Moscow and is already available to residents in the north, north-east, south, and south-west of the city. In May, the service is due to cover the whole capital, and by the end of the year, it will be rolled out to other cities. The Perekrestok.Bystro mobile app is already available on the Apple AppStore and Google Play.
Delivery is free for orders over RUB 599, and purchases are eligible for the Perekrestok loyalty programme. Payments are made in app, and there is no minimum order requirement. The product range includes 9,000–14,000 SKUs, depending on the store.
“X5’s unique technology platform has enabled us to actively develop our delivery services. Pyaterochka’s successful express delivery business for ordering essentials is already handling over 10,000 orders daily. We have decided to expedite the pilot launch of express deliveries from Perekrestok stores to help our customers deal with the unprecedented challenge the whole world is facing now. This new channel will leverage Perekrestok’s 25 years of experience in offline retail. Our customers will still be able to enjoy the quality, product range, and prices they are used to with our physical supermarkets.
“The quick roll-out of express delivery services is the result of the digital transformation that we began at the end of 2018. I would like to thank the operational and IT teams at the Pyaterochka and Perekrestok formats, as well as our new FoodTech division led by Vladimir Kholyaznikov, for this quick and smooth project launch under demanding conditions. Our ‘delivery from stores’ model makes it possible to add more points of sale with minimum capital expenditure,” said Igor Shekhterman, CEO of X5 Retail Group.
The Perekrestok.ru online supermarket continues to grow and is currently operating at full capacity during the coronavirus pandemic. In Q1 2020, the total number of orders exceeded 590,000, which represents a more than twofold increase year-on-year. During the peak days in March, the daily number of orders exceeded 8,700, with the average ticket for new orders rising to RUB 6,000 compared to RUB 3,625 in 2019. To address growing demand, the Company has hired extra couriers and order pickers and increased its own vehicle fleet by 20%, while also partnering with five transportation companies.
Х5 launched express delivery from Pyaterochka stores at the end of 2019. Currently, delivery can be ordered from 115 Pyaterochka proximity stores in Moscow, covering over 90% of the capital’s households. The number of orders per day has reached 10,000 compared to just 600 daily orders in February. Delivery is also available from nine stores in Kazan. If increased demand exceeds current estimates, the number of stores offering express delivery may be increased to 500 and cover 10 cities in 2020.