“This is a very notable move from the Co-op and Uber Eats. While the specialist rapid delivery sector has seen consolidation and challenges over the past year, third-party, such as UberEats, and major retailers own services, such as Tesco Whoosh, have continued to expand and see buy-in from consumers.

While directly operating a service like Whoosh allows Tesco full control, for smaller retailers the need to partner with third-parties can mean that services feel less-fully fledged than either their own online services or in-store shopping. Member/loyalty pricing is a key area of disparity between channels, as for shoppers this makes a material difference to the price at checkout, both in terms of comparing ways to shop a retailer but also when comparing differing retailers on third-party apps. So for the Co-op and UberEats to collaborate on solving this issue is a notable step forward. For UberEats it also, at present, the ability to integrate member/loyalty pricing also makes it unique in a market where courting retail brands onto such services is becoming increasingly competitive. This is an area we will explore in much more detail in Mintel's upcoming Online Grocery Retailing - UK, 2024.”