Colruyt joins PostNL's grocery service

The mailman will deliver groceries every two weeks from now on: PostNL will collaborate with new grocery service Stockon in the Netherlands. A remarkable fact is that its private label brands are Boni, which is Belgian supermarket chain Colruyt’s private label.

Subscription service for consigned groceries

Stockon is a new local mobile grocery service with financial and logistical support from PostNL. It will be a fixed delivery subscription for popular groceries: the app users will get a fixed grocery list delivered at home every two weeks by their usual PostNL delivery person.

Consumers will be able to alter their usual order three days before the delivery, adding (through a search) or removing items (with a swipe). Stockon will also suggest deliveries based on the family composition or purchase history. The grocery app also plans to add a barcode scanner to easily add new items on the list. 

There are about 2,000 items currently available on Stockon and these are all non-perishable items for now. At a later date, fresh food will also be added. None of the product range is actually Stockon property, because it works with consigned stock and basically acts a platform for grocery items. PostNL will handle the logistics.

Share data with manufacturers, including Colruyt

It is the first time a manufacturer heads straight to the consumer, Stockon director Stephan Bosman claims: “We have everything, from leading name brands to private label alternatives. The latter are from the Boni brand, which is Colruyt’s private label. We do not buy stock, but charge a fee to the sales price and work from our distribution center in Barendrecht.” 

That distribution center will harbour 300 to 400 SKU’s of Colruyt’s Boni brand. It is the first time that Colruyt’s Boni brand will enter the Dutch market, but that may lead to more according to Colruyt spokesperson Silja Decock’s statements to Distrifood. Colruyt Group’s export division (Colex) also wants to sell its private brands across the world, in a B2B setting: “The Stockon collaboration is our first experience with a direct-to-consumer platform.”

The collaboration will yield interesting data, because Stockon will share the data with its manufacturers, including Colruyt. This will give both the manufacturers and brand suppliers will valuable customer behaviour and enable them to trial new marketing strategies or new products without having to go through supermarkets.

Free delivery, discounts per manufacturer

Colruyt will need to create a separate policy for the Dutch market, because it will have to set its own pricing and product range for Stockon. The grocery app basically acts as a digital marketplace and will not discount or market things itself, according to Bosman. “We sell convenience at an attractive, fixed price, but not at the lowest price. Stockon will not discount, but we do offer a discount on the receipt. On top of that, manufactures can reward loyal customers and can give away specific purchases for instance.”

There is free shipping if the order exceeds 25 euro, otherwise there is a 2.49 euro charge. If customers do no pinpoint a time for delivery, they will also get a two euro discount. Contrary to Amazon Prime for instance, there are no other fixed costs for the subscription service.