CBI member, Ocado has announced that it has gone into business with Japan’s biggest supermarket operator, Aeon in a bid to launch and popularise online grocery shopping in the market.
Online grocery shopping has yet to take off in Japan, where consumers are accustomed to shopping daily for fresh ingredients. However, competition to be the first to harness the technology and logistics of online shopping is emerging between Japan’s two largest grocery stores: Aeon and Seiyu.
Aeon, which operates more than 21,000 stores in Japan, said that it would use Ocado’s software and expertise to build a new online business with a national network capable of handling $5.5 billion in sales by 2030, and just over $10 billion by 2035.
The deal between Ocado and Aeon will be the group’s first in Asia.
Aeon will use Ocado’s product picking software within parts of its existing store network, and offer click-and-collect services from selected sites. Aeon will also integrate Ocado’s robotic warehouses model into its own distribution network, adopting Ocado’s renowned customer fulfilment centres system.
Initially, Ocado-managed customer fulfilment centres will serve Japan’s Kanto region, with the first planned to go live in 2023, followed by other regions over the next two years.
Ocado shares leapt by as much as 15% in early Friday trading last week, as investors welcomed the partnership, whose technology deals have become more important that its original business of selling food online.
Despite only holding a 1.4% share of Britain’s grocery market, Ocado’s technology has powered the group to a £8.1 billion stock market valuation and partnerships with leading supermarket groups, including Kroger in the United States and Casino in France.
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