Woolworths: faster deliveries and happier customers with Drive Yello

When Woolworths first started delivering groceries to its customers in Australia, the idea was to offer a service that would provide a more convenient shopping experience.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic, customer demand became more of an urgent problem to solve, as we saw more customers in isolation or lockdowns," explained Woolworths' Point to Point National Operations Manager. “The majority of the population moved to online shopping as a result of no access to the in-store experience, accelerating growth."

Woolworths now had to meet demands for much faster and more convenient deliveries, within one to two hours rather than the traditional three-to-five-hour window.

Woolworths turned to Drive Yello, a last-mile logistics and courier delivery service that uses HERE Maps API for JavaScript, HERE Rest APIs, and a series of software development kits from HERE. “Woolworths could see this was the future of convenience for their online shoppers," said Tracy Dudakov, Marketing Manager at Drive Yello. “Consumer behavior was changing as food ordering apps were delivering food they ordered within the hour, and there was the rise of on-demand delivery overseas, too."

For the past three years, the two companies have worked together, adapting to changing volumes of demand and expectations. Using the Drive Yello platform, Woolworths can see at-a-glance which couriers are available, and book orders for delivery both same-day and next-day.

They can also use the platform to pass notes from the customer to the driver, such as directions on where to leave the order. The order is tracked and proof of delivery is logged within the system, and the customer gets real-time tracking information of their items throughout. Drive Yello also offers order bundling and route optimization to customers.

Real results

Since the start of the pandemic, the experience of online shopping and demand for it has changed in various ways, moving closer to its original objective as lifestyles have returned to pre-pandemic times.

“Our volume of work with Yello over the last 12 months has remained strong, and it continues to grow each week as people choose convenient deliveries within the one-to-two-hour window," the Point to Point National Operations Manager said. "While we've seen challenges at times as a result of Omicron and weather impacts, the volume remained strong while service levels to customers have continued to improve with the volume growth."

The partnership must constantly adapt to these new patterns of demand and behavior. Drive Yello has worked continually with Woolworths to customize and change according to their needs. Drive Yello has helped Woolworths deliver to more consumers at times that suit them.

"Through the collaboration with Woolworths and Yello, we are now opening the capability to expand into more remote areas of Australian states," he continued.

Customer satisfaction has improved in measurable ways. “We've seen a steady growth in our Net Promoter score over the last six months as we enhanced the platform experience and on-time-to-customer metrics," he said.

“We rely on network reliability and customer satisfaction to make business decisions to increase order volume or introduce new offers to store regions where we did not have a presence," he said.

Customer satisfaction depends on orders arriving on time and being completed as well as how smooth the doorstep experience is.

“All these measures have continued to improve," he said.

While no one knows what will happen in Australia and the wider world in the coming months, it sounds as if Woolworths is well-placed to meet any changes in customer expectations and meet its growth ambitions at the same time, thanks to the Drive Yello partnership.