Ido Raz is Co-Founder of Deliverider, a platform that helps grocers expand assortment and profitability by embedding local third-party sellers into their online operations without split shipments. Today he discusses how grocery stores can increase margins in an AI-Agent era:
Standfirst
Online grocery is under pressure: thin margins, rising expectations, and the coming wave of AI shopping agents. Retailers that want to stay first choice must master basket completeness, reliability, and cost transparency – without adding more warehouses.
Online Grocery at a Crossroads
Online grocery has matured fast. Wide assortments and rapid delivery are now non-negotiable, yet unit economics remain fragile. The reflex has often been to add more central capacity, but extra warehouses rarely guarantee better profitability.
At the same time, a new force is reshaping digital commerce: AI shopping agents. As customers delegate decisions to autonomous or semi-autonomous bots, grocers will be compared less on brand affinity and more on cold, machine-readable criteria.
What AI Agents Optimise For
When agents decide where to place an order, five factors matter most:
- Basket completeness – Can everything be bought in one go, from everyday staples to long-tail categories?
- Time-to-door & reliability – Will the promised slot actually arrive on time?
- Landed cost clarity – Are fees and thresholds simple and predictable?
- Parcel count & friction – One basket, one delivery, simple returns.
- Data confidence – Structured catalogue data and real-time availability that machines can trust.
Retailers who score highest on this checklist will become the default selection for both agents and customers.
The Blueprint for Resilience
How can grocers position themselves to win? A practical playbook is emerging:
- Extend assortment through local specialists – By partnering with nearby sellers (within 20–30km), retailers can add depth in categories often missing from central stock: personal care and beauty, premium pet, baby, alcohol, toys, DIY, mobile accessories, and more.
- Keep the customer promise unified – Regardless of item origin, all products must appear in one storefront, one checkout, one delivery.
- Orchestrate orders in real time – Basket allocation across 1P and 3P must be instant, so fulfilment keeps pace with same-day windows.
- Consolidate into a single parcel – Multi-seller items need to merge seamlessly into the retailer’s last-mile flow, so the customer receives one delivery, not many.
- Standardise the service layer – Returns, refunds, and customer care should remain consistent, preserving retailer control.
- Expose clear, structured data – Stock, cut-offs, delivery slots, and policies should be machine-readable, allowing agents to “trust” the retailer’s offer.
The Payoff
Retailers who implement this model can expect:
- Bigger baskets – 3P items often account for 25-30% of products in live orders.
- Wider range – Assortments can grow from ~50k to 90-100k SKUs without new warehouses.
- New categories unlocked – From extended grocery to beauty, pet, alcohol, DIY, toys, and beyond.
- Revenue growth – Significant uplifts in online sales.
- Operational gains – More than 10% improvement in profitability through fuller baskets and better slot utilisation.
- Customer loyalty – A shopping experience that is simple, predictable, and repeatable.
Why Local 3P Matters
Beyond economics, this approach builds stronger ecosystems. Local sellers gain volume and digital reach. Communities benefit when small businesses are embedded in modern retail flows. And customers get immediacy and choice, without juggling multiple checkouts or delivery fees.
The UK Opportunity – Why Now
In the UK especially, shoppers already expect speed and breadth. Grocers face growing competition from Q-commerce, discounters, and general marketplaces. To stay relevant to both people and AI agents, supermarkets need to expand range while keeping the delivery promise intact.
A Practical Next Step
Retailers don’t need to bet the farm. A low-risk pilot – onboarding just a handful of vetted local sellers, targeting a strong catchment area, and tracking three KPIs (basket penetration, AOV uplift, and on-time delivery) – can prove the concept quickly.
Deliverider: Putting It Into Practice
The good news is that this model isn’t theory. Platforms like Deliverider are already operational across Europe, enabling grocers to integrate local third-party sellers directly into their same-day flow. The results: broader assortments, significant revenue growth, more than 10% uplift in operational profit, and reliable same-day consolidation into a single parcel.
For retailers, it means being AI-ready by design. For customers, it means one basket, one delivery, one promise kept.
