{"id":774075,"date":"2026-07-28T04:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T11:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=wherenext&#038;p=774075"},"modified":"2026-07-28T04:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T11:32:15","slug":"co-op-q-commerce","status":"publish","type":"wherenext","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/co-op-q-commerce","title":{"rendered":"As Delivery Demand Rose, One Retailer Supercharged Growth"},"author":501,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[472211,276092,384832,1161],"department":[476812],"wherenext-category":[],"industry":[],"class_list":["post-774075","wherenext","type-wherenext","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-delivery","tag-location-analytics","tag-omnichannel","tag-retail","department-business-growth"],"acf":{"short_description":"Achieving retail\u2019s fastest delivery speeds requires nimble couriers\u2014and the scaling power of location science.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Couriers on mopeds and e-bikes\u2014they\u2019re the visible last leg of a much less visible logistics challenge."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Left","content":"<strong>Snapshot<\/strong>: When British retailer Co-op began offering fast delivery from its stores, its q-commerce team used location analytics to turn 1,000 stores into mini-fulfillment centers for local communities.","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Quick commerce\u2014or q-commerce\u2014requires more than fast couriers to deliver goods in 20 minutes. Increasingly, it relies on location science to predict demand, coordinate mini fulfillment centers, and design delivery routes.\r\n\r\n\u201cOur understanding of spatial science is absolutely crucial,\u201d says George Smith, senior operations manager at Co-op Group, a British food retailer whose deliveries now reach 90 percent of the UK with online home deliveries of its products in as little as 60 \u00a0minutes.\r\n<h3><strong>Co-op Scores Rapid Growth, Fueled by Location Analytics<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nAt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esriuk.com\/en-gb\/about\/events\/ac\/presentations\/2026#powering-q-commerce-expansion-using-arcgis\">a recent industry presentation<\/a>, capacity network manager Joshua Ramiah explained how Co-op discovered the importance of location analysis when the company added online sales and deliveries to its brick-and-mortar business:"},{"acf_fc_layout":"kaltura","video_id":"1_eqmab771","time":false,"start":0,"stop":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"When Co-op began offering q-commerce in 2018, the team manually defined each store\u2019s catchment area\u2014the neighborhoods eligible for quick delivery\u2014using digital maps. The retailer\u2019s brick-and-mortar stores were the backbone of the initiative, doubling as mini-fulfilment centers where delivery orders are picked and packed\u2014which also ensured that the local, high street store could benefit from online demand.\r\n\r\nBy 2022, fast delivery was available at 200 locations\u2014a notable achievement.\r\n\r\nAs Ramiah explains, team members realized they would need location analytics to scale:"},{"acf_fc_layout":"blockquote","content":"<em>We were looking at quicker, reliable ways to define delivery areas, avoid overlap between stores, or analyze catchment demographics in order to scale effectively.<\/em>\r\n\r\n<em>The bottom line is that spatial data and software processes that work for 10 or 100 stores aren\u2019t necessarily suitable at a national scale. And with ambitions to reach hundreds more stores, we needed a scalable, consistent, data-driven solution. <\/em>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Geographic information system (GIS) technology let the team map every Co-op location, then use drive times and drive-distance analysis to build catchments store by store.\r\n\r\nWith the technology, they could define delivery areas for 50 stores in a couple of hours\u2014a process that once took two weeks\u2014with a shareable, bird\u2019s-eye view of the network available to any team.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe impact was huge,\u201d Ramiah says.\r\n<h3><strong>Building a More Responsive, Dynamic Business<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nCo-op couldn\u2019t apply a one-size-fits-all approach to q-commerce. Every store had its unique characteristics, and GIS helped the team understand each one. As Ramiah explains:"},{"acf_fc_layout":"kaltura","video_id":"1_ae4qg6yd","time":false,"start":0,"stop":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Location insights also improved the business\u2019s responsiveness to customer needs. Using GIS drive-time data and traffic modeling, the team set delivery areas to ensure that orders reached customers quickly at any hour of the day, including when night shift workers and college students order pizza in the wee hours.\r\n\r\nIf a store must close for investment and renovations, Co-op uses drive-time analysis to reassign routes to other stores.\r\n\r\n\u201cAll this has supported q-comm\u2019s rapid growth to scale nationally,\u201d Smith says.\r\n\r\nBy 2025, Co-op\u2019s q-commerce had grown to over 1,500 stores, and 90 percent of the UK population can now access Co-op groceries online, via Co-op\u2019s own online shop\u2014shop.coop.co.uk\u2014or via its strategic partners.\r\n<h3><strong>A Mindset Molded by Location Science<\/strong><\/h3>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"<strong>Related Read:<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\/\/\u00a0 Siting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/dark-stores-nexttech\">dark stores<\/a>","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Many organizations use location technology to understand their data and uncover hidden efficiencies in their networks.\r\n\r\nOutside of retail, using location analytics to map facilities, destinations, and routes has helped firefighters maintain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/food-delivery-and-fire\">quick response times<\/a> and enabled logistics analysts to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/optimized-routing\">rapidly reroute supply chains<\/a> around disasters.\r\n\r\nFor Co-op, location analysis supported the goal of utilizing its bricks-and-mortar estate to build a leading quick commerce operation and omnichannel fulfillment ecosystem capable of moving at retail\u2019s fastest register. As Ramiah notes:"},{"acf_fc_layout":"blockquote","content":"<em>We\u2019re proud that q-commerce is now an integrated part of the overall Co-op Group strategy. And the spatial data that we use every day through GIS is an important part of our process.<\/em>"}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Q-Commerce from a UK Retailer Co-op Gets an Analytics Boost<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Co-op has turned more than 1,000 stores into mini-fulfillment centers in local communities, enabling fast deliveries to meet customer needs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/co-op-q-commerce\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As Delivery Demand Rose, One Retailer Supercharged Growth\" \/>\n<meta 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