They landed two years ago promising to change the buying habits of Spanish consumers in the supermarket. With its technology, it was not necessary to go down to the supermarket to do the last-minute purchase. In ten minutes, a delivery man could bring it to the door of the house. This was the service of the quick commerce platforms, Getir, Gorillas, Dija and GoPuff, which just two years after their arrival have practically disappeared from the Spanish market. Perhaps Getir, which announced an ERE to its entire workforce this week, could maintain minimal operations, but the unions see it as highly unlikely. The investment funds that finance these startups have turned off the excessive investment that characterized the years of the pandemic and the rise of electronic commerce. Since the middle of last year – when interest rates and inflation began to rise – the funds require their investee companies to enter profits as soon as possible. And it is clear that Spain is not a profitable market: Gopuff acquired Dija and left the country in the summer of 2022 and, this year, Gorillas was acquired by Getir and is on the verge of disappearing.
The official reasons that explain his departure in Spain are unknown. These startups –some of them are unicorns, because they are worth more than 1,000 million– are hermetic when it comes to sharing data. Asked by this newspaper on several occasions, Getir has refused to explain its business figures and user acquisition in Spain. This week, he was hiding behind "respecting the ERE negotiation process", which affects more than 1,500 workers from the bases of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and Malaga.
At the beginning of the landing of the service in Spain, Hunab Moreno, founder of the startup Blok -which was acquired by Getir (directed in Spain by himself after the acquisition)- explained in this newspaper that the margins are not particularly low -from 30 -40%, like conventional supermarkets, which instead of paying delivery people, pay cashiers– and that the service could work with a network of a dozen small stores strategically located in the city. However, Moreno admitted that in the first months the margins were lower to attract customers with low prices and marketing campaigns.
Without current data on the table, it can only be deduced that the business is not profitable and that it has not achieved the expected customer acquisition of the service. In fact, Niklas Östberg, CEO of the delivery multinational Delivery Hero, recognized in this newspaper a few months ago that "the q-commerce supermarket products channel still represents a great challenge because the consumer is not in the habit of doing the last-minute purchase through platforms”. The German group, owner of Glovo, claims to be one of the pioneers in introducing this ultra-fast delivery service in Europe. This division represents 10% of its income, so the great business opportunity continues to be in the delivery of restaurant food.
Spain is not the only country where quick commerce is in decline. In France, Getir has also recently announced its departure from the country and the bankruptcy of the local division. If two years ago there were 19 operators of this service in Europe, now (and after several concentration processes) only three large companies remain standing: Getir, GoPuff and Flink. None of them have plans for the future in Spain.
