Canadian pharmacy chain Rexall has teamed up with Uber Eats to give customers access to more than 800 healthcare products, for in-store pick-up or delivery, available at 200 locations across Canada.
Through the Uber Eats mobile or desktop app, customers can place orders for delivery or in-store pick up in locations in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario.
“As Canadians across the country do their best to stay home, Rexall is excited to increase convenience and expand our service offering to customers,” said Nicolas Caprio, President of Rexall. “Uber is a perfect partner for us, as we continue with our goal of bringing much-needed health and personal care products to our customers safely and quickly.
“Since the pandemic, what we’ve been trying to do is really understand the consumer and the consumer behaviour shift that has occurred during this pandemic. One of the realities is for us to be able to cater to that ever-evolving consumer need. And especially right now if you think of the state of home orders here in Ontario and even across the country, the consumer is thinking how do I conveniently shop and do it in a safe way. And so this is another one of those partners and we came together thinking of that consumer need and we feel that the Uber Eats is a great partner that responds exactly to that need.”
Items as part of the program range from health, personal care, household, cleaning, beauty, cosmetics, baby supplies, and more.
“If you need non-prescription or personal care items delivered to your door, Uber Eats and Rexall have you covered,” said Lola Kassim, General Manager of Uber Eats Canada. “We’re excited to launch this new partnership, providing Canadians in 63 cities with a convenient ordering and delivery option with Rexall.”
Caprio said the products are picked in the store by employees from the consumer order.
Rexall has just over 400 locations in Canada. The locations chosen for this new program are the ones that fit in best to what the pharmacy chain can logistically handle.
The products that are part of the program are from what the company has seen as the greatest consumer requests. It does not include prescription medication. Those services are offered through the Rexall Direct program.
Gary Newbury, retail supply chain and last mile interim executive, said Canadian retailers continue to find creative ways to connect with their consumers during the pandemic.
“This is an exciting new partnership between Rexall and Uber Eats, using the latter’s already established local network for delivering meals to Canadians at home. Unlike Instacart, the “shopping” will be performed by a Rexall member of staff, knowledgeable in the product, keen to serve the consumer well and help the banner preserve sales during this period. They will also be able to call the customer for any queries and help cement the relationship this way, especially in the area of personal care consumption and “shelf available” alternatives.
“Rexall is embracing “lockdown resilience” by using their own people to pick and pack for both “click and collect” as well as home delivery which makes a lot of sense. As volumes increase, they will learn how to manage both these online services, improve space utilization and integrate their shelf filling and order picking into the role of the store associates. The lessons learnt will be invaluable if they are shared across their chain to quickly improve efficiencies. This is the big benefit of using your own people, rather than outsourcing the personal shopping to a third party.”
Newbury said that increasingly other retailers will be looking to bring the “shopping” into the store associate’s responsibilities.
“Whilst each retailer continues on their online/digital fulfillment journey, it is one that may take several twists and turns as they attempt to scale. They may find, quickly, capacity will be a big deciding factor in whether to move from in-store picking to a micro fulfilment (MFC) solution, and whether this will be store based, or a dark store,” he said.
