Grocery Shop Delivery Services: Insights, Challenges, and Solutions

Did you know that from 2025 through 2030, the grocery delivery market in the U.K. is predicted to demonstrate an annual growth rate of 7.11%? Gone are the days of travelling to the nearest store. Shoppers are embracing convenient options more than ever before. Grocery chains should be doing their best to capitalise on these statistics by ensuring their grocery shop delivery service is working for them.

In today’s fast-moving grocery market, keeping up with customer expectations while staying profitable is tougher than ever. Rising costs and the pressure for last-mile delivery are raising the stakes, and relying on grocery store delivery services (also known as marketplaces) only adds more complexity, and more challenges.

To help you maximise profits and improve your delivery strategy, we’ll answer these questions:

• What are the top 3 grocery delivery challenges facing businesses like yours? 
• How do these challenges impact your bottom line and customer satisfaction?
• How can your business gain a competitive advantage in a fast-paced market?

To maximise profits and ensure a seamless customer experience, it’s important you understand the delivery challenges you’re up against and the ways they impact your bottom line. So, let’s get into it.

3 grocery delivery challenges businesses are currently facing:

1. Costs are climbing.

Right now, you’re probably feeling the pressure from every angle. Running and maintaining your own delivery fleet is becoming more expensive by the day. Fuel costs continue to rise, with petrol up 18.5% and diesel up 19.6% over the past four years. In the U.K., National Insurance Contributions (NICs) are another growing burden. This year, employer NICs increased from 13.8% to 15%, while the earnings threshold dropped from £9,100 to £5,000 per year. Both changes increase the cost of employing people, especially in delivery roles. That’s a double hit to your bottom line.

2. Your customers want their orders as soon as possible.

The U.K. grocery delivery market is on track to hit 34.3 million users by 2030, and as it grows, so do expectations. In the world of Q-commerce, speed is everything. Gen Z in particular expects their orders to arrive almost instantly. In 2023, they were most willing to pay extra for speed, spending an average of 9% of their order value on two-hour delivery.

To stay ahead of the competition, you need the ability to move fast, really fast! Plus, your customers can easily see most of your competitors in the same app or online space. If you’re not keeping up, your business will get edged out very quickly.

3. Grocery shop delivery services take total control and mess with your margins.

Though marketplaces help you reach more customers, it comes at a cost. Their steep fees and inflexible terms drive up the price of grocery delivery while chipping away at your profits. With commissions between 10% and 35%, there’s little room left to grow. On top of high fees, they also take total control of branding, with their platform’s look, feel, and tone of voice taking precedence over yours.

The biggest loss? Your customer data. Marketplaces hoard the insights that matter, like customer buying habits and preferences, leaving you in the dark. Without that information, building loyalty and driving repeat orders becomes a guessing game you’re set up to lose.

How do these challenges impact your bottom line and customer satisfaction?

In summary, these grocery delivery challenges deeply impact your bottom line and your ability to drive repeat business from satisfied customers.

• Inflation on delivery essentials like petrol and diesel are making it more expensive to run your own delivery fleet.
• Customers expect near-instant delivery timelines and can easily compare the competition, meaning slower delivery times could impact customer acquisition, satisfaction, and repeat business.
• The high commission and other fees paid to marketplaces impacts your profits and your customers’ wallets.
• Grocery shop delivery services withhold customer data, making it harder for you to reach your current audience, market your business to new customers, and maintain a consistent and impactful brand identity.

How can your business gain a competitive advantage in a fast-paced market?

The key to protecting your profits and staying ahead of your competition is choosing a partner that can help you get deliveries into customers’ hands in a snap while allowing you to maintain total control of your channels and customer data.

Stuart’s proven platform and trusted expertise can help you take on today’s challenges and come out on top. We provide the strategic partnership you need to:

✓ Reduce unnecessary costs associated with marketplaces and managing your own fleet.

✓  Strengthen your competitive position with more control over your customer experience and operational efficiency.

✓  Unlock new revenue streams with flexible, customisable solutions.

✓  Solve operational challenges like driver shortages, effectively serving high-traffic areas, and reducing your carbon footprint.

✓  Create a competitive edge with improved customer satisfaction, driving a larger share of wallet and higher profits.

It’s proven that consistent omnichannel experiences can increase customer retention by up to 56%. Stuart helps ensure that your grocery delivery service is seamless, so your customers are always happy and your profits always have room to grow—the perfect stand-in for high-fee marketplaces. 

Own 2025 with smarter grocery delivery—a free guide for you.

To help you learn even more about the challenges of grocery delivery, we’ve created a guide with trends, stats, and the most up-to-date data. Read “Own 2025 with smarter grocery delivery” for free to see how Stuart is revolutionising grocery delivery for grocery chains like yours.