Will the Turkish challenger win the battle for ultra-fast delivery?

Remember when same-day delivery seemed extraordinary? Us neither – that’s strictly for the historians. We’ve all become Uber’s Children now, re-educated by a host of new brands to expect our services to be faster, easier, free-er; the world at our fingertips, on our terms, for next to nothing, instantly. 

In this world of Uber’s Children, Amazon has for years been the poster child for ‘fast’; Bezos himself has talked about the stimulating challenge of trying to meet the continually rising expectations of the ‘divinely discontent’ customer. But now there is a new war in the grocery category: the war for ‘ultra-fast’ – companies delivering your order in under half an hour. 

Amongst the top three contenders battling for the throne is the Turkish brand Getir. As a challenger, Getir styles itself as a democratiser, albeit with an unusual twist — the founder Nazim Salur is famous for saying that Getir is about ‘democratising the right to laziness’. And their edge over larger rival Gopuff (itself a pivot from a brand that began by delivering shisha pipes) is speed. While Gopuff targets a 30 minute delivery time to get your last-minute guacamole and margarita mix, Getir aims for just 10. Suddenly same-day delivery seems a long, long time ago. 

There are several big questions for Getir that the year ahead will start to answer. Is there really a big enough gap between 10 and 30 minutes to drive customer preference, or is this just another case of 7 Minute Abs? Getir understandably reckons that in a world of Uber’s Children, 20 minutes makes a big difference. Does it matter that, despite its striking yellow and purple motorbikes, Getir is an upstart competing against bigger and better-known brands – like Tesco’s new Whoosh service that offers groceries in an hour? Is their pricing strategy sustainable? How long can Getir continue to price below cost? (Accepting that the world is full of well-funded services that have yet to make a dime.) 

An $8bn valuation — bigger than Deliveroo or Morrisons — says there’s a lot of people betting Getir will make it work. That speed will kill. And at the same time, Getir has just raised the expectations of Uber’s Children all over again.

After all, with a ten minute delivery time, who still needs drones?  

Adam Morgan is the founder of eatbigfish and The Challenger Project.