Delhaize's e-commerce push features Bol.com and franchisers

Belgian supermarket chain Delhaize is homing in on e-commerce: the chain partners with its online sibling Bol.com and makes it possible for affiliated entrepreneurs to offer their own webshop.

Pick up online messages the same day

Delhaize is developing an e-commerce solution for affiliated retailers and will be testing its own online range for independent stores this spring. They will offer 5000 products online and let customers collect them the same day in the store itself. The offer is more limited than on main website Delhaize.be, but will be faster and offer more service – according to CEO Xavier Piesvaux.

“We think we have found the model that makes it possible for our members to have an e-commerce offer and still remain profitable,” Piesvaux explains in Belgian newspaper L’Echo. Between now and June, the test will start in ten franchise stores. The CEO believes it is a good sign that more entrepreneurs than required have applied for the pilot project, which in his view points to a clear interest in e-commerce.

Delhaize becomes a pick-up point for Bol.com

Delhaize has also entered into a partnership with another Ahold Delhaize subsidiary, online shop Bol.com. The chain’s supermarkets will expand their services with pick-up points for packages from the online marketplace. Until now, only Albert Heijn supermarkets were pick-up points for Bol.com.

With this move, Delhaize wants to gain more visibility with web shoppers and also get more – and new – customers into its stores. This test too is first tried out in forty shops in the Antwerp region. Depending on the results, the service is then rolled out nationwide in all the chain’s stores. According to Piesvaux there are other projects with Bol.com, but what they are, the CEO does not yet want to reveal.