September 23, 2025 • 24 mins
In this episode of The Retail Podcast, Alex Rezvan sits down with Connie Kwok, Vice President of Quick Commerce at Glovo, to unpack the future of on-demand retail.
From groceries and electronics to medicine and AirPods, Glovo has become one of Europe’s most dynamic marketplaces—operating in 23 countries and redefining convenience beyond speed.
Connie shares her perspective on:
What “quick commerce” really means for today’s customer
Why speed alone is no longer enough—accuracy and convenience matter too
Localisation across 23 countries: assortment, pricing, and regulation
Operational levers like batching, membership fees, advertising, and dark stores
The cultural contrasts between Asia, Europe, and social commerce in China
Why delight and discovery—not just transactions—will define the next era of retail
Whether you’re in retail, e-commerce, or logistics, this conversation offers a masterclass in how global platforms adapt to local behaviours while scaling sustainably.
Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro & Welcome
00:20 – What is Quick Commerce?
01:03 – Defining customer convenience beyond speed
02:40 – Why Europe converges on 30-minute delivery vs. India’s 15
05:14 – Localising operations across 23 countries
07:05 – Partner model vs. dark stores
10:00 – Key categories: groceries, electronics, medicine, alcohol
12:45 – Awareness challenges beyond food delivery
14:33 – Fashion and returns dilemma
15:58 – Marketplace vs. delivery-only
17:12 – Technology and operational efficiency at scale
18:30 – New gifting experience in Glovo
19:54 – What Europe can (and can’t) learn from China’s social commerce
23:40 – Discovery and delight vs. pure transactions in retail
24:00 – Closing thanks
🔗 Explore Glovo: https://glovoapp.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, and welcome to the RetailPodcast.
And today we're joined by ConnieWatt, Vice President of Quick
Commerce at Glovo. Before we start, for those who
don't know what Q commerce is, Iassume it's the same as quick
(00:22):
commerce. Very, very good question to
begin with. So first of all, let me explain
what Globo is and audio listeners may not know.
So Globo, we're a Spanish tech company with the mission to
build the largest marketplace inNew York City and we are able to
send customers products whateverthey want within a minute and
we're a multi category platform.So when it comes to Q commerce,
(00:44):
I think 80% of our business is food delivery from restaurants,
probably what we're most famous for.
But actually the fastest growingpart of a business is everything
non restaurants, which is what we call quick commerce in
global. So customers can come to buy
their groceries from us, but also products from a range of
like retail partners. I'm, I'm curious from a, from an
(01:08):
experience perspective, apart from speed delivery, which
obviously is important if you'rehoping to to, to use a sort of
one line delivery platform or marketplace, what would you say
the three primary experiences and more experience factors that
distinguish a quick commerce separate from same day or next
(01:29):
day? I think ultimately is thinking
about what convenience means to customers and how that's really
evolved over time because I, I spent a significant part of my
career at Amazon and when I joined nearly 10 years ago now,
like speed, speedy delivery was 2 day delivery.
That's how I am. But now that I'm at Globo,
we're, we're worrying about whether delivery times are 35
(01:51):
minutes versus 30 minutes. But I think, but to be clear
though, I think what we've learned at Globo is that what
convenience means to customers can be really different
depending on what that shopping mission it's and what category
of product you're looking to buy.
So if you're buying burger and chips, obviously speed of
delivery is absolutely what convenience meats because people
(02:12):
are hungry, they want, they wanttheir food to get cold.
But in other categories, convenience may mean totally
different thing. Like in grocery, for example,
you could be halfway cooking a recipe and you've realised
you've run out of soy sauce for your stir fry, you need it as
quickly as possible. But in another use case, you
could be commuting to work, you know that you'll be home at 6:00
(02:34):
that evening. So therefore, if you want your
grocery order to to come, the most convenient thing for you is
that this delivery slot and the accuracy into that delivery slot
because you don't want it to arrive before 6 because you're
not home yet, but you also don'twant to be very much after six.
So it's, it really depends on what customers are are really
(02:55):
thinking about. And I think, I think the
evolution of commerce has been it's not just about being
really, really fast. It's all about thinking about
all of those different customer use cases and making sure that
we're able to be the most convenient option for for that
customer today. I think one of the things that
on the show we've spoken about quick commerce in India and how
(03:16):
you know that is 15 minutes is the and it's like how do you do
15 minutes in Europe or any of the other logistical nightmare
countries? But they seem to, well anyway,
just all takes the conversation in a different way.
And I and, and I am curious because I did interview one of
your competitors in the UK and Iasked this question.
(03:38):
Do you think or from research orjust from a general perspective,
is there any, You just described2 use cases where maybe the
answer is yes, but do you think we need to get to 15 minute
delivery? I think the India use case is a
very interesting one to reference and understanding why
it's 15 minutes in India, whereas I think in Europe
(03:58):
everyone's converging on 30 minutes.
Even 45 minutes is already pretty fast because there's
there's a number of supply side factors that in it help India to
do that right. Obviously, the labour cost there
is very different, but also how densely populated, especially
the major cities are similar to China where I spent a lot of my
(04:19):
career. So there's that supply side
constraint that everyone needs to think about, but there's also
the customer expectation. I think a lot of the use cases
we are just talked about, yes, 30 minutes seems to be quick
enough, but we're also thinking about things like again, other
use cases where 45 minutes, 60 minutes or even 5 hours, again
(04:41):
is maybe the accuracy of exactlyA1 at 7:00 PM, not 7:30.
That may be the most important things.
And I'm curiosity will Globo getinto like the the week delivery,
like the grocery you mentioned, like this, you know, a once a
week type thing. Is that or sorry?
Are you already doing that for grocers?
So if right now, if you want to schedule a delivery for next
(05:05):
week, it's absolutely possible. And what we're always doing is
understanding customers, demanding customers behaviour to
best understand how we can startthem is something that I've been
at Glover six months now. So I'm fascinated to see the
data set that I have. One thing that I've noticed like
Glover is in 23 different countries.
So I've got 23 different countries of customer behaviour
(05:28):
to learn from, which is fascinating.
But for some reason the Italiansare really keen to schedule
their little race. They're the ones that have the
highest amongst all of my countries.
You all haven't understood clearly why that is, but I think
this is a big, we have so much data on our hands and it's a
combination of looking at that quant, but also talking to our
(05:50):
customers more closely to see, does it make sense for us to to,
to widen that that delivery window for them.
That's really interesting and and I think with, with the
spirit of you guys being a marketplace, you, you did
mention global operates in 23 countries across Europe, Central
Asia and Africa. So what, like, I mean, in Italy
is an interesting one, but what approaches would you use to
(06:12):
localise assortment pricing fulfilment in these different
cities and giving the different regulations as well?
Because there's career regulations that have making
your life so much more complicated.
And, and, and just quickly afterthat, like what once you've
answered that, what would becomean optimal merchant partnership
(06:33):
under these? Because then I think, you know,
you're a marketplace dependent on these partnerships.
What's an optimal partnership look like?
Yeah. So let's talk about the kind of
how to localise for customers. You're absolutely right.
What localising for customers and tailoring that local demand
music can mean very, very different things that first of
all there's definitely the must haves.
You talked about local laws and regulations.
(06:55):
We have one right now going on. For example, Bulgaria is
currently transitioning to the EU.
So our app interface has to be showing both EUR and Bulgarian
left in this transition period. So something we've just done
just for Bulgaria, but there's also other basic things like
translation at global across our23 countries, we've got 18, I
(07:18):
think 18 ish different languages.
So making sure what looks great in Spanish also looks great in
Georgian. But at the same time, we also
have a lot of expat populations in all of these countries.
I mean, I moved to Barcelona sixmonths ago.
My Spanish is still terrible. So we also have to think about
what languages make sense for usto do, also translations for our
(07:40):
customers. So those are the more basic
stuff that we have to get right.But beyond that, and you talked
about how do we tailor our selection and pricing beyond
those basics, we also need to think about what those customer
behaviours and expectations are.We have some very large global
and regional players who partnerwith us across our whole
(08:01):
footprint. Obviously the McDonald's, KFC's
of the world, but also in the retail space, Car 4, Decathlon,
they're global businesses, but we also need to make sure that
we serve what customers care about are their local heroes.
So for example, in Spain, we know that everyone loves their
bread in the mornings. They typically have a their
(08:23):
favourite local Baker, so we definitely need to make sure
they're on board or something. My, my naughty husband does a
lot. He loves to order from his
independent cake shop after dinner.
And again, my husband's very happy because that we can do
that for him every night. OK.
Expanding back out Q Commerce I think has surpassed 1 billion
(08:45):
GMV and grocery retail segments are growing by about 48% year on
year, which in itself is, is incredible, which operational
elements such as order density, a batching, membership fees,
advertising, dark stores, partnership products most
influence contribution to margin.
(09:07):
And then if you like, what are the key indicators that will
demonstrate the, the model sustainability and and
profitability? I mean, I don't know, just to
sort of like go back to the corebusiness if there's any sort of
light you can shed there. You, you just listed all of my
headaches, Alex, that I have to think about.
I think first of all, let's talkabout the differences between
(09:29):
that store model versus the partner model.
I think rather than just focusing on the margin
specifically, what we really need to think about is what's
the relative value proposition we're giving to customers.
And I think that both models have respective pros and cons
because the partner model is like supermarkets, that is very
well known to our customers. They don't already know and love
(09:50):
them. But what we typically see is
that some supermarkets are amazing.
They're able to give us almost livestock and price updates so
that we're able to give customers a very accurate view
of what's in the store. Others are not quite there yet,
let's just put it that way. So that's a big challenge and
the big con for that business. Whereas on the dot store
(10:12):
business we control everything that goes on in that store.
We it is a 1P model essentially for us, right.
So we're able to really optimisethe customer experience for our
customers. So things like out of stocks is
much more rarer on that side. And also our opening hours are
typically a lot longer than the supermarket.
So again, coming back to Spain where on Sundays a lot of shops
(10:36):
are shot and that that store model becomes very, very
important to our customers. OK.
In terms of them, when you mentioned earlier on of the
categories that you're doing so,for example, because it's a
marketplace, you can get beauty,which I think is 58%,
electronics, which is 59% actually that doesn't add up.
(10:56):
All my percentage you're breaking up, I'm like a 200%.
How does that work? But in terms of sorry, maybe
it's category split beauty electronics and pets.
What, what, what, what do you see is working like from
operationally packaging and all all these elements that come
into that. And then obviously customer
satisfaction, right, MPs scores in last mile delivery.
(11:19):
What's working, What you see is trending and maybe where's your
focus? Actually by focus is just to
make sure that customers understand we have this breadth
of offers to that they can shop from because I think for many,
many of the people who love and use Clover every day, we're
still a restaurant food. That's historically been our
(11:40):
strength and that's what they associate us with.
But unfortunately we have all, they have a lot of people's not
even tried groceries, which is typically the next place they
try, let alone more retailers. So something that we're working
a lot on is thinking about how do we make customers more aware,
aware of those categories. But coming back to your question
of how different those custom those categories are, there are
(12:03):
some categories that definitely what are much more attuned to
that traditional quick commerce model of 30 minute delivery.
So, for example, we, we launch over the counter medicine in
Madrid in Spain this year. Obviously, if you're sick and
dead, you, you really want that really, really quickly.
But also some of the more sinfulcategories, let's just put it
(12:23):
that way, alcohol plus the things that you don't want
people to see you flying in the shop.
Those, those were very, very. But there's also some of the
other thinking about what also does very well for us at Glovo
today is Airpods. We sell a lot of those and I
think at the use case thinking about people lose them all the
(12:44):
time. And then yeah, gosh, I have, I
have a call in 20 minutes. So there's there's yet another
use case. So yeah, lots of lots of
categories that that work very well for us.
I, I think for, for those who are watching or yeah.
And for those who are watching the podcast, because obviously
we're live. I just want if you're not, maybe
you're in the UK or maybe you'rein a in a country that globe is
(13:07):
not that. Do you want to show this is the
web web version of the site? And I know this is an app based.
So probably I, I need to stress this is an app.
The, the global app is where the, the money's at.
But I just, it's really interesting in the, in the
categories that you've got up there just just to focus on
because like you were saying that obviously Apple Airpods or
(13:30):
Airpods in general, people are losing them left, right and
centre. So there's this use case of
urgency because I've lost something and it's coming in.
Do you, do you, is there any, doyou see or can you comment?
Are there any other areas on this that are missing that you
want to go into? Like I can see like clothes,
fashion's not there, right? Fashion is a very tough one
(13:51):
because with fashion I learned this lesson very, very hard at
Amazon Fashions. Very tough because you have the
returns and sizing as. A Oh my goodness, difficulty
getting delivered is one thing, and then how do you manage the
process is the other. Exactly, exactly.
So and, and right now we do actually have a few footwear and
(14:13):
fashion retailers testing out Globo right now what we're in,
what we have enabled for customers is they can return
directly to the stores themselves.
That's one, one way to to solve that problem for now.
But we know that it's not the most seamless way to do things.
So we want to make sure that theUX is a lot better before we we
go very big in that category. Yeah.
(14:33):
And I think the one thing listening to you talk that sort
of challenged my perspective or perception is that it's not just
delivery, it's a marketplace in that sense because you mentioned
Amazon. So there is that sort of like,
although there's no product there, but I guess if I go into
one of the one of those categories, there'll be a
different customer or user experience.
(14:54):
But we also have something what we called on demand.
So if for whatever reason you want to I need, I'm in
Barcelona, one end of Barcelona,you're at the other end.
I just need to send you my notebook.
That's also possible. So all of those delivery
services is something that Oscar, who's our CEO and
founder, even 10 years ago when he launched the app, that's what
(15:17):
he that's how he imagined the app to be.
We can just deliver you anythingwithin the serial.
OK. So you can think about how this
can grow in terms of does that mean if you're selling a concert
tickets second hand rather than or selling a second hand iPhone,
all of those two cases I think come to mind, Yeah.
Well, I have a fantastic one foryou.
(15:37):
Last week I was in an airport. I was watching a family meltdown
because they'd left the passports in the hotel and they
were like talking to the hotel bus and saying, can you put it
in an Uber? And the guy was like, no, I
can't put it in an Uber. But that's a fantastic use case.
But it will Globo Global will bring it to the airport for you.
Exactly. Use case of the future, when you
(15:58):
look at shift on to technology and your sort of investments in,
I don't know, AI inventory forecasting, beefing up the ETA
announcement, what what's on theroad map?
What do you think? And I know you've only been
there a short time, so it's likeyou're still probably looking at
those areas. But I'm curious where you feel
(16:21):
which metrics are important to you and where what?
Where would you invest from a technology perspective?
Yeah. I think here it's really
appropriate to talk about Delivery Hero who is, we're part
of the Delivery Hero group and Delivery Hero also owns other
sister brands like Foodpanda in Asia or Middle East.
So they have very, very similar businesses to Globo.
(16:44):
And one of the reasons why I think one of the things Delivery
Hero really recognised very quickly is that is an industry
where the best technology will win.
How well you connect your customers to your partners, to
your couriers and they realise that there's actually a lot of
scale effects in the back end technology.
So for example, it doesn't really make sense for each of
(17:05):
these sister brands to have its own logistical technology and
algorithms, because ultimately how you drive operational
efficiencies that are when you talk about metrics like how many
orders can you deliver in in an hour?
How what's your delivery time? All of those metrics is
essentially the wherever you areand you're able to share
(17:25):
knowledge across the different brands in the group and you
probably can build 1 central system to serve lots of
different brands. So that's always been delivery
heroes philosophy. But at the same time, that's the
back end this, those metrics areimportant.
What other metrics that's also important is the front end, what
customers are interacting with and this is where delivery EUR
(17:47):
and strategy is quite different.Recognising that Glover tell
about Foodpanda, we all understand our customers very,
very differently. How do we drive engagement
conversion a stickiness is is really different in Asia versus
in in Europe, let's just say. So at the in that time that all
of the brands still have direct control of what our app looks
(18:09):
like. And we based on our app
department on basically all the things we talked about for in
terms of what customers demand, how do they behave, etc.
Some of the things I can't talk about new, new things, but some
things that recently launched onGlobo, which is really exciting
for our customers is a new gifting experience.
(18:29):
So imagine, oh God, it's actually my husband's birthday
this month. You don't know what to buy for
him. There's now an interface where
you can put in who you're buyingfor, how old they are, what's
your budget. And we give you a kind of Tinder
like experience to see Obama. That's cool.
Minions for you. That was just I was saying
that's cool, but it's my wife's birthday.
I've just gone back to your website to see when.
(18:53):
You need to tell on the app. Is on the app, but I.
Love the app. That's really cool.
OK, final two questions. What's one question that I
haven't asked you that people normally ask you?
I think one thing that I spent alot of time as a consultant as
well as being in in industry andhaving spent eight years in
Asia, I think one thing that I always get asked is what will
(19:14):
come from China into Europe, OK.And especially how different the
social media landscape is in China.
I think one place to really talka lot about is social commerce
in China and very, very, very huge there, especially the rise
of Dalian or TikTok as it's known in Western Europe.
(19:36):
Because when I was in China, it was around 2018 when Dalian,
China's TikTok got really, really, really big.
And I remember I was at Amazon at the time, we had a visiting
VP from the Seattle headquartersand we wanted to make this silly
short born video with him feature to feature him in the
all hands. And he was totally bemused by
(19:56):
why do you have to do this stupid little dance to the
stupid little music? I mean, how different the world
is now, right? And obviously that is one of the
biggest exports from China that has really worked well in the
West. And you see every other platform
now from Facebook to to YouTube also focusing on short form
videos. I think one thing that hasn't
(20:16):
really translated quite as well is probably TikTok shop again,
looking at how Darwin has has emerged.
If depending on whose data you believe, they are now the 3rd or
the 4th biggest e-commerce player in July.
Now 1520% share is the kind of numbers that I see.
And we've seen some of the otherAsian markets adopt TikTok shop
(20:40):
in the similarly enthusiastic fashion.
I lived in Bangkok for a while, absolutely huge traction there
and we saw a lot of significant share gain compared to some of
the e-commerce leaders there. Now, I think it remains to be
seen how big it will be in in inmore western market.
There's definitely some successes.
(21:01):
I hear TikTok shop is now the fourth biggest beauty retailer
in the Uki can definitely believe that beauty is one of
the best and most effective categories.
But I personally have a some doubts as whether it can get as
big as China. And I think it's it's
fundamentally due to like the makeup of the Internet in China
(21:22):
is is quite different. I was actually listening to
another podcast recently called Search Engine.
They had a episode talking aboutthe Dubai chocolate phenomenon.
And they actually described likethe difference between Chinese
social media and Western meet social media really eloquently.
I think they said something along the lines of Americans
can't wrap their heads around how consumerist China socially
(21:46):
media is. And they were arguing how in
China, because of censorship, the Internet has become more
like a giant shopping mall. So every interaction is geared
towards selling you something. And I think to some extent I
agree with that thesis because again, thinking about when I was
in China and comparing the numbers with Amazon, when
(22:07):
customers open an e-commerce appin China, 50 to 70% of them have
no idea what they want to buy. They're just browsing compared
to 20% of American shoppers on Amazon.
So basically people in China go to shopping apps not just to
transact, they're also using it to discover new products they
never knew before, be entertained, go and play games,
(22:30):
go and watch videos, which I think explains why things like
live streaming is working so well in China compared to some
of the Western market. So there's, I think Amazon has
essentially trained customers inthe States as well as in Western
Europe how to transact in e-commerce.
So I think as a result a bit more pessimistic on on how how
(22:51):
explosive that could be here. I, I, I think for, for
personally, it's entertainment. What they do really well is
entertainment, both online and in store.
Well or spaces where transactions don't need to
happen are allowed. So in Shanghai, you most of the
shops have a coffee bar. You are encouraged to dwell,
(23:13):
spend time there, hang out there, be on your phone, I don't
know, take social pictures wherewe are incredibly
transactionally LED over here. But that's why retail is failing
and that's why so many retailersin the UK have failed, because
they treat everything as the transaction, which interestingly
enough is maybe the way we've been trained by e-commerce.
(23:36):
So there's no delight, there's no discovery.
Sorry, I say there hasn't been delight, there hasn't been
discovery. And that's what in Asia they do
really, really well. And China, I think have
spearheaded that. And I totally agree with you
that delight and discovery are two things incredibly difficult
to do online. And so again, as I said, I will
(23:57):
be downloading your app and looking for some delight for
birthday recommendations for my work whose birthday it was also
is in December and sorry, in September.
And to take from that, Connie, Ijust wanted to say thank you so
much for giving up your time to be with us today.
And I look forward to hopefully downloading the app and and
buying something and using the service and seeing where it
(24:18):
takes. Thank you, Alex.
It's been wonderful to chat to you today.
Thanks.
Hello, and welcome to the RetailPodcast.
And today we're joined by ConnieWatt, Vice President of Quick
Commerce at Glovo. Before we start, for those who
don't know what Q commerce is, Iassume it's the same as quick
(00:22):
commerce. Very, very good question to
begin with. So first of all, let me explain
what Globo is and audio listeners may not know.
So Globo, we're a Spanish tech company with the mission to
build the largest marketplace inNew York City and we are able to
send customers products whateverthey want within a minute and
we're a multi category platform.So when it comes to Q commerce,
(00:44):
I think 80% of our business is food delivery from restaurants,
probably what we're most famous for.
But actually the fastest growingpart of a business is everything
non restaurants, which is what we call quick commerce in
global. So customers can come to buy
their groceries from us, but also products from a range of
like retail partners. I'm, I'm curious from a, from an
(01:08):
experience perspective, apart from speed delivery, which
obviously is important if you'rehoping to to, to use a sort of
one line delivery platform or marketplace, what would you say
the three primary experiences and more experience factors that
distinguish a quick commerce separate from same day or next
(01:29):
day? I think ultimately is thinking
about what convenience means to customers and how that's really
evolved over time because I, I spent a significant part of my
career at Amazon and when I joined nearly 10 years ago now,
like speed, speedy delivery was 2 day delivery.
That's how I am. But now that I'm at Globo,
we're, we're worrying about whether delivery times are 35
(01:51):
minutes versus 30 minutes. But I think, but to be clear
though, I think what we've learned at Globo is that what
convenience means to customers can be really different
depending on what that shopping mission it's and what category
of product you're looking to buy.
So if you're buying burger and chips, obviously speed of
delivery is absolutely what convenience meats because people
(02:12):
are hungry, they want, they wanttheir food to get cold.
But in other categories, convenience may mean totally
different thing. Like in grocery, for example,
you could be halfway cooking a recipe and you've realised
you've run out of soy sauce for your stir fry, you need it as
quickly as possible. But in another use case, you
could be commuting to work, you know that you'll be home at 6:00
(02:34):
that evening. So therefore, if you want your
grocery order to to come, the most convenient thing for you is
that this delivery slot and the accuracy into that delivery slot
because you don't want it to arrive before 6 because you're
not home yet, but you also don'twant to be very much after six.
So it's, it really depends on what customers are are really
(02:55):
thinking about. And I think, I think the
evolution of commerce has been it's not just about being
really, really fast. It's all about thinking about
all of those different customer use cases and making sure that
we're able to be the most convenient option for for that
customer today. I think one of the things that
on the show we've spoken about quick commerce in India and how
(03:16):
you know that is 15 minutes is the and it's like how do you do
15 minutes in Europe or any of the other logistical nightmare
countries? But they seem to, well anyway,
just all takes the conversation in a different way.
And I and, and I am curious because I did interview one of
your competitors in the UK and Iasked this question.
(03:38):
Do you think or from research orjust from a general perspective,
is there any, You just described2 use cases where maybe the
answer is yes, but do you think we need to get to 15 minute
delivery? I think the India use case is a
very interesting one to reference and understanding why
it's 15 minutes in India, whereas I think in Europe
(03:58):
everyone's converging on 30 minutes.
Even 45 minutes is already pretty fast because there's
there's a number of supply side factors that in it help India to
do that right. Obviously, the labour cost there
is very different, but also how densely populated, especially
the major cities are similar to China where I spent a lot of my
(04:19):
career. So there's that supply side
constraint that everyone needs to think about, but there's also
the customer expectation. I think a lot of the use cases
we are just talked about, yes, 30 minutes seems to be quick
enough, but we're also thinking about things like again, other
use cases where 45 minutes, 60 minutes or even 5 hours, again
(04:41):
is maybe the accuracy of exactlyA1 at 7:00 PM, not 7:30.
That may be the most important things.
And I'm curiosity will Globo getinto like the the week delivery,
like the grocery you mentioned, like this, you know, a once a
week type thing. Is that or sorry?
Are you already doing that for grocers?
So if right now, if you want to schedule a delivery for next
(05:05):
week, it's absolutely possible. And what we're always doing is
understanding customers, demanding customers behaviour to
best understand how we can startthem is something that I've been
at Glover six months now. So I'm fascinated to see the
data set that I have. One thing that I've noticed like
Glover is in 23 different countries.
So I've got 23 different countries of customer behaviour
(05:28):
to learn from, which is fascinating.
But for some reason the Italiansare really keen to schedule
their little race. They're the ones that have the
highest amongst all of my countries.
You all haven't understood clearly why that is, but I think
this is a big, we have so much data on our hands and it's a
combination of looking at that quant, but also talking to our
(05:50):
customers more closely to see, does it make sense for us to to,
to widen that that delivery window for them.
That's really interesting and and I think with, with the
spirit of you guys being a marketplace, you, you did
mention global operates in 23 countries across Europe, Central
Asia and Africa. So what, like, I mean, in Italy
is an interesting one, but what approaches would you use to
(06:12):
localise assortment pricing fulfilment in these different
cities and giving the different regulations as well?
Because there's career regulations that have making
your life so much more complicated.
And, and, and just quickly afterthat, like what once you've
answered that, what would becomean optimal merchant partnership
(06:33):
under these? Because then I think, you know,
you're a marketplace dependent on these partnerships.
What's an optimal partnership look like?
Yeah. So let's talk about the kind of
how to localise for customers. You're absolutely right.
What localising for customers and tailoring that local demand
music can mean very, very different things that first of
all there's definitely the must haves.
You talked about local laws and regulations.
(06:55):
We have one right now going on. For example, Bulgaria is
currently transitioning to the EU.
So our app interface has to be showing both EUR and Bulgarian
left in this transition period. So something we've just done
just for Bulgaria, but there's also other basic things like
translation at global across our23 countries, we've got 18, I
(07:18):
think 18 ish different languages.
So making sure what looks great in Spanish also looks great in
Georgian. But at the same time, we also
have a lot of expat populations in all of these countries.
I mean, I moved to Barcelona sixmonths ago.
My Spanish is still terrible. So we also have to think about
what languages make sense for usto do, also translations for our
(07:40):
customers. So those are the more basic
stuff that we have to get right.But beyond that, and you talked
about how do we tailor our selection and pricing beyond
those basics, we also need to think about what those customer
behaviours and expectations are.We have some very large global
and regional players who partnerwith us across our whole
(08:01):
footprint. Obviously the McDonald's, KFC's
of the world, but also in the retail space, Car 4, Decathlon,
they're global businesses, but we also need to make sure that
we serve what customers care about are their local heroes.
So for example, in Spain, we know that everyone loves their
bread in the mornings. They typically have a their
(08:23):
favourite local Baker, so we definitely need to make sure
they're on board or something. My, my naughty husband does a
lot. He loves to order from his
independent cake shop after dinner.
And again, my husband's very happy because that we can do
that for him every night. OK.
Expanding back out Q Commerce I think has surpassed 1 billion
(08:45):
GMV and grocery retail segments are growing by about 48% year on
year, which in itself is, is incredible, which operational
elements such as order density, a batching, membership fees,
advertising, dark stores, partnership products most
influence contribution to margin.
(09:07):
And then if you like, what are the key indicators that will
demonstrate the, the model sustainability and and
profitability? I mean, I don't know, just to
sort of like go back to the corebusiness if there's any sort of
light you can shed there. You, you just listed all of my
headaches, Alex, that I have to think about.
I think first of all, let's talkabout the differences between
(09:29):
that store model versus the partner model.
I think rather than just focusing on the margin
specifically, what we really need to think about is what's
the relative value proposition we're giving to customers.
And I think that both models have respective pros and cons
because the partner model is like supermarkets, that is very
well known to our customers. They don't already know and love
(09:50):
them. But what we typically see is
that some supermarkets are amazing.
They're able to give us almost livestock and price updates so
that we're able to give customers a very accurate view
of what's in the store. Others are not quite there yet,
let's just put it that way. So that's a big challenge and
the big con for that business. Whereas on the dot store
(10:12):
business we control everything that goes on in that store.
We it is a 1P model essentially for us, right.
So we're able to really optimisethe customer experience for our
customers. So things like out of stocks is
much more rarer on that side. And also our opening hours are
typically a lot longer than the supermarket.
So again, coming back to Spain where on Sundays a lot of shops
(10:36):
are shot and that that store model becomes very, very
important to our customers. OK.
In terms of them, when you mentioned earlier on of the
categories that you're doing so,for example, because it's a
marketplace, you can get beauty,which I think is 58%,
electronics, which is 59% actually that doesn't add up.
(10:56):
All my percentage you're breaking up, I'm like a 200%.
How does that work? But in terms of sorry, maybe
it's category split beauty electronics and pets.
What, what, what, what do you see is working like from
operationally packaging and all all these elements that come
into that. And then obviously customer
satisfaction, right, MPs scores in last mile delivery.
(11:19):
What's working, What you see is trending and maybe where's your
focus? Actually by focus is just to
make sure that customers understand we have this breadth
of offers to that they can shop from because I think for many,
many of the people who love and use Clover every day, we're
still a restaurant food. That's historically been our
(11:40):
strength and that's what they associate us with.
But unfortunately we have all, they have a lot of people's not
even tried groceries, which is typically the next place they
try, let alone more retailers. So something that we're working
a lot on is thinking about how do we make customers more aware,
aware of those categories. But coming back to your question
of how different those custom those categories are, there are
(12:03):
some categories that definitely what are much more attuned to
that traditional quick commerce model of 30 minute delivery.
So, for example, we, we launch over the counter medicine in
Madrid in Spain this year. Obviously, if you're sick and
dead, you, you really want that really, really quickly.
But also some of the more sinfulcategories, let's just put it
(12:23):
that way, alcohol plus the things that you don't want
people to see you flying in the shop.
Those, those were very, very. But there's also some of the
other thinking about what also does very well for us at Glovo
today is Airpods. We sell a lot of those and I
think at the use case thinking about people lose them all the
(12:44):
time. And then yeah, gosh, I have, I
have a call in 20 minutes. So there's there's yet another
use case. So yeah, lots of lots of
categories that that work very well for us.
I, I think for, for those who are watching or yeah.
And for those who are watching the podcast, because obviously
we're live. I just want if you're not, maybe
you're in the UK or maybe you'rein a in a country that globe is
(13:07):
not that. Do you want to show this is the
web web version of the site? And I know this is an app based.
So probably I, I need to stress this is an app.
The, the global app is where the, the money's at.
But I just, it's really interesting in the, in the
categories that you've got up there just just to focus on
because like you were saying that obviously Apple Airpods or
(13:30):
Airpods in general, people are losing them left, right and
centre. So there's this use case of
urgency because I've lost something and it's coming in.
Do you, do you, is there any, doyou see or can you comment?
Are there any other areas on this that are missing that you
want to go into? Like I can see like clothes,
fashion's not there, right? Fashion is a very tough one
(13:51):
because with fashion I learned this lesson very, very hard at
Amazon Fashions. Very tough because you have the
returns and sizing as. A Oh my goodness, difficulty
getting delivered is one thing, and then how do you manage the
process is the other. Exactly, exactly.
So and, and right now we do actually have a few footwear and
(14:13):
fashion retailers testing out Globo right now what we're in,
what we have enabled for customers is they can return
directly to the stores themselves.
That's one, one way to to solve that problem for now.
But we know that it's not the most seamless way to do things.
So we want to make sure that theUX is a lot better before we we
go very big in that category. Yeah.
(14:33):
And I think the one thing listening to you talk that sort
of challenged my perspective or perception is that it's not just
delivery, it's a marketplace in that sense because you mentioned
Amazon. So there is that sort of like,
although there's no product there, but I guess if I go into
one of the one of those categories, there'll be a
different customer or user experience.
(14:54):
But we also have something what we called on demand.
So if for whatever reason you want to I need, I'm in
Barcelona, one end of Barcelona,you're at the other end.
I just need to send you my notebook.
That's also possible. So all of those delivery
services is something that Oscar, who's our CEO and
founder, even 10 years ago when he launched the app, that's what
(15:17):
he that's how he imagined the app to be.
We can just deliver you anythingwithin the serial.
OK. So you can think about how this
can grow in terms of does that mean if you're selling a concert
tickets second hand rather than or selling a second hand iPhone,
all of those two cases I think come to mind, Yeah.
Well, I have a fantastic one foryou.
(15:37):
Last week I was in an airport. I was watching a family meltdown
because they'd left the passports in the hotel and they
were like talking to the hotel bus and saying, can you put it
in an Uber? And the guy was like, no, I
can't put it in an Uber. But that's a fantastic use case.
But it will Globo Global will bring it to the airport for you.
Exactly. Use case of the future, when you
(15:58):
look at shift on to technology and your sort of investments in,
I don't know, AI inventory forecasting, beefing up the ETA
announcement, what what's on theroad map?
What do you think? And I know you've only been
there a short time, so it's likeyou're still probably looking at
those areas. But I'm curious where you feel
(16:21):
which metrics are important to you and where what?
Where would you invest from a technology perspective?
Yeah. I think here it's really
appropriate to talk about Delivery Hero who is, we're part
of the Delivery Hero group and Delivery Hero also owns other
sister brands like Foodpanda in Asia or Middle East.
So they have very, very similar businesses to Globo.
(16:44):
And one of the reasons why I think one of the things Delivery
Hero really recognised very quickly is that is an industry
where the best technology will win.
How well you connect your customers to your partners, to
your couriers and they realise that there's actually a lot of
scale effects in the back end technology.
So for example, it doesn't really make sense for each of
(17:05):
these sister brands to have its own logistical technology and
algorithms, because ultimately how you drive operational
efficiencies that are when you talk about metrics like how many
orders can you deliver in in an hour?
How what's your delivery time? All of those metrics is
essentially the wherever you areand you're able to share
(17:25):
knowledge across the different brands in the group and you
probably can build 1 central system to serve lots of
different brands. So that's always been delivery
heroes philosophy. But at the same time, that's the
back end this, those metrics areimportant.
What other metrics that's also important is the front end, what
customers are interacting with and this is where delivery EUR
(17:47):
and strategy is quite different.Recognising that Glover tell
about Foodpanda, we all understand our customers very,
very differently. How do we drive engagement
conversion a stickiness is is really different in Asia versus
in in Europe, let's just say. So at the in that time that all
of the brands still have direct control of what our app looks
(18:09):
like. And we based on our app
department on basically all the things we talked about for in
terms of what customers demand, how do they behave, etc.
Some of the things I can't talk about new, new things, but some
things that recently launched onGlobo, which is really exciting
for our customers is a new gifting experience.
(18:29):
So imagine, oh God, it's actually my husband's birthday
this month. You don't know what to buy for
him. There's now an interface where
you can put in who you're buyingfor, how old they are, what's
your budget. And we give you a kind of Tinder
like experience to see Obama. That's cool.
Minions for you. That was just I was saying
that's cool, but it's my wife's birthday.
I've just gone back to your website to see when.
(18:53):
You need to tell on the app. Is on the app, but I.
Love the app. That's really cool.
OK, final two questions. What's one question that I
haven't asked you that people normally ask you?
I think one thing that I spent alot of time as a consultant as
well as being in in industry andhaving spent eight years in
Asia, I think one thing that I always get asked is what will
(19:14):
come from China into Europe, OK.And especially how different the
social media landscape is in China.
I think one place to really talka lot about is social commerce
in China and very, very, very huge there, especially the rise
of Dalian or TikTok as it's known in Western Europe.
(19:36):
Because when I was in China, it was around 2018 when Dalian,
China's TikTok got really, really, really big.
And I remember I was at Amazon at the time, we had a visiting
VP from the Seattle headquartersand we wanted to make this silly
short born video with him feature to feature him in the
all hands. And he was totally bemused by
(19:56):
why do you have to do this stupid little dance to the
stupid little music? I mean, how different the world
is now, right? And obviously that is one of the
biggest exports from China that has really worked well in the
West. And you see every other platform
now from Facebook to to YouTube also focusing on short form
videos. I think one thing that hasn't
(20:16):
really translated quite as well is probably TikTok shop again,
looking at how Darwin has has emerged.
If depending on whose data you believe, they are now the 3rd or
the 4th biggest e-commerce player in July.
Now 1520% share is the kind of numbers that I see.
And we've seen some of the otherAsian markets adopt TikTok shop
(20:40):
in the similarly enthusiastic fashion.
I lived in Bangkok for a while, absolutely huge traction there
and we saw a lot of significant share gain compared to some of
the e-commerce leaders there. Now, I think it remains to be
seen how big it will be in in inmore western market.
There's definitely some successes.
(21:01):
I hear TikTok shop is now the fourth biggest beauty retailer
in the Uki can definitely believe that beauty is one of
the best and most effective categories.
But I personally have a some doubts as whether it can get as
big as China. And I think it's it's
fundamentally due to like the makeup of the Internet in China
(21:22):
is is quite different. I was actually listening to
another podcast recently called Search Engine.
They had a episode talking aboutthe Dubai chocolate phenomenon.
And they actually described likethe difference between Chinese
social media and Western meet social media really eloquently.
I think they said something along the lines of Americans
can't wrap their heads around how consumerist China socially
(21:46):
media is. And they were arguing how in
China, because of censorship, the Internet has become more
like a giant shopping mall. So every interaction is geared
towards selling you something. And I think to some extent I
agree with that thesis because again, thinking about when I was
in China and comparing the numbers with Amazon, when
(22:07):
customers open an e-commerce appin China, 50 to 70% of them have
no idea what they want to buy. They're just browsing compared
to 20% of American shoppers on Amazon.
So basically people in China go to shopping apps not just to
transact, they're also using it to discover new products they
never knew before, be entertained, go and play games,
(22:30):
go and watch videos, which I think explains why things like
live streaming is working so well in China compared to some
of the Western market. So there's, I think Amazon has
essentially trained customers inthe States as well as in Western
Europe how to transact in e-commerce.
So I think as a result a bit more pessimistic on on how how
(22:51):
explosive that could be here. I, I, I think for, for
personally, it's entertainment. What they do really well is
entertainment, both online and in store.
Well or spaces where transactions don't need to
happen are allowed. So in Shanghai, you most of the
shops have a coffee bar. You are encouraged to dwell,
(23:13):
spend time there, hang out there, be on your phone, I don't
know, take social pictures wherewe are incredibly
transactionally LED over here. But that's why retail is failing
and that's why so many retailersin the UK have failed, because
they treat everything as the transaction, which interestingly
enough is maybe the way we've been trained by e-commerce.
(23:36):
So there's no delight, there's no discovery.
Sorry, I say there hasn't been delight, there hasn't been
discovery. And that's what in Asia they do
really, really well. And China, I think have
spearheaded that. And I totally agree with you
that delight and discovery are two things incredibly difficult
to do online. And so again, as I said, I will
(23:57):
be downloading your app and looking for some delight for
birthday recommendations for my work whose birthday it was also
is in December and sorry, in September.
And to take from that, Connie, Ijust wanted to say thank you so
much for giving up your time to be with us today.
And I look forward to hopefully downloading the app and and
buying something and using the service and seeing where it
(24:18):
takes. Thank you, Alex.
It's been wonderful to chat to you today.
Thanks.
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