Talking Retail Grocery and product news for independent retailers
The service, which is led by venture capital fund LVL1 Group, is headed by a team with extensive experience in online and offline retail, including former managers from Sainsbury’s, Deliveroo, and financial technology company Revolut.
Jiffy says its service aims to be “a cut above local convenience stores and e-commerce” by delivering products within minutes, without minimum orders or substitutions.
The company will spend the first-round financing on launching its ‘dark first’ stores in London, with an expected start date of March 2021. The first areas Jiffy will be available in are Westminster, Waterloo, Lambeth, Battersea, Clapham Town, Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Hackney, Whitechapel, Stepney Green.
The service will offer a variety of fruits and vegetables, meats, meals, and household essentials from popular brands and local suppliers, with a total product range exceeding 2,000 SKUs per dark store.
The company plans to launch a further 20 local dark stores across the UK later this year and is already negotiating the next investment round.
Lev Leviev, the founder of LVL1 Group, said: “Online express grocery delivery is a relatively new concept. It is gaining traction around the world and disrupting traditional neighbourhood convenience store shopping. Executing hyperlocal delivery requires a combination of online e-commerce and sophisticated offline retail and logistics expertise. Jiffy’s founders are experienced entrepreneurs with a proven track record in these areas, and we are confident in their ability to execute.”
Jiffy founder and director, Artur Shamalov, added: “We are building a mobile-first convenience store with a superfast delivery that aims to change the way people shop for groceries. Safety and social distancing concerns have accelerated changes in customer needs and behaviour, creating a rising demand for rapid and contactless grocery delivery. Neither traditional supermarkets nor existing e-commerce businesses have been able to satisfy this demand fully.
“Traditional supermarkets were not designed with quick fulfilment in mind, as they were built to make customers wander the aisles and spend more on impulse purchases. E-commerce businesses require ordering products way in advance. Therefore, neither is able to offer a solution for when you run out of something between your weekly shops.”
