Grocery delivery app Milkrun is experiencing an increase in orders as more Kiwis choose delivery for everyday staples. Photo / Supplied
Popping to the supermarket for milk and bread is becoming a thing of the past for some shoppers who are dialling up a same-day delivery online to get essentials delivered.
The popularity of apps such as Uber Eats, DoorDash and now Milkrun is so strong, some local supermarkets are having to accommodate the growing number of orders outside their traditional hours.
FreshChoice Epsom owner and operator Juliet Monaghan had to extend her store’s opening hours to 9pm after seeing an influx of online orders late into the evening.
“In the beginning, it was just dribbles and here and there there’d be the odd order, but suddenly we noticed there was a real bubble around about five o’clock dinner time. People got hungry, ‘oh, I’m missing this, I’m missing that’, and then suddenly we get a lot of orders in the early evening,” Monaghan said.
“It’s quite a new thing and we’re learning that if we stay open and meet that demand, the customers are there wanting it.
“People have discovered the convenience of it and actually it’s not that much more expensive.”
Monaghan believes “the horse has bolted” with online delivery platforms and she expects every retailer to have one.
“This is the way of the future. Yes, we’d like to see our customers in store and we know, particularly at FreshChoice, we want to know our customers and we definitely want to encourage them. But I think it’s horses for courses.”
She said staff had embraced the new model and the business had changed in-store systems to ensure some workers remained at checkouts while others travelled around the store collecting items for online orders.
Monaghan said certain staff who are more adept with technology have been particularly able to adapt, with the team playing to its strengths as to who covers what.
“The biggest thing is they have to know where everything is in the store and it’s 10,000 products here. So that takes memory, it takes perception, it takes agility and that’s the challenge. I think some of them really love it because they are being challenged.”
As for the drivers, they have essentially become extended staff and are on a first-name basis with most of those working at the supermarket.
Orders vary in size and product choice, but produce such as avocados, apples and cucumbers, along with pantry staples like milk and bread are always popular. As for the most peculiar item, Monaghan thinks a single Pinky chocolate bar might be it.
Woolworths recently entered the delivery market, launching its Milkrun platform in 2024, linking the convenience of other apps with its range of products.
Milkrun is now available in 76 stores, an increase of 19 stores in the first half of this financial year, with direct-to-boot available in 50 stores, up seven.
Woolworths director of eComX Mark Wolfenden said the business has seen the platform’s popularity go from strength to strength.
“You might have seen in our Q3 results it grew over 20%.
“Customers are looking for convenience and we’re really seeing that. It’s actually not just shopping though, 80% of customers are going online before they’re going into store to purchase. So we’re seeing customer behaviour shift,” Wolfenden said.
“We are having to shift the way that we manage our stores to make sure that we can meet these new customer expectations because it’s very different to 25 years ago when you placed that first online order.”
According to Woolworths’ latest third-quarter result for the 2025 financial year, e-commerce rose 24.3% to $313 million, up from $252m in the same quarter during the previous year. Meanwhile, e-commerce penetration has grown to 14.8%, up from 12.4%.
Wolfenden said with the growth of Uber Eats and DoorDash, Woolworths has had to innovate to remain competitive and he expects others in the market to do the same, even the local dairy.
“I think we’ll continue to see customers shopping in all sorts of different ways and certainly what we see is customers aren’t only shopping online, they’re still going into our stores.
“Dairy owners and other stores will also have to adjust the way that they sell, maybe in new channels, but I’m sure they’ll do that.
“They’ve done that in the past when customer behaviours change.”
Echoing that sentiment was FreshChoice’s executive general manager Tim Cartwright, who said customers’ needs have changed considerably, especially post-Covid.
FreshChoice offers delivery in 25 of its locations and plans to roll out the service to another 28 locations across its network in the next 12 months.
“When we design a store, we use the word frictionless. It needs to be frictionless for our customers to be able to come in and navigate, because we absolutely want them in our stores,” Cartwright said.
“It [also] needs to be set up with a nice pick-up area, and be really easy to find the products so customers at home don’t have to wait too long.”
To help reduce that wait time, Milkrun’s delivery operations are run solely via Uber, allowing the platform to utilise the network of drivers at Uber’s disposal.
According to research commissioned by Uber, the Uber Eats app supported $120m in additional value for merchants in New Zealand in 2024 that would not have been earned without Uber Eats or other food delivery apps.
Uber Eats New Zealand general manager Andy Bowie said the platform aims to connect people to the businesses, events and experiences that make up communities.
“This reciprocal nature makes the platform a powerful tool to boost industries and our small business economy while remaining convenient for how Kiwis want to live their everyday lives,” Bowie said.
The research also estimated that consumers using the Uber Eats app in 2024 saved 4.3 million hours (i.e. from avoiding unwanted journeys out of the house and time spent cooking).
But it doesn’t come cheap.
Uber charges a $500 (excluding GST) one-time fee for new locations, which is deducted from payments in weekly instalments.
Fees are also charged to businesses for every order they receive from customers via the Uber Eats app, 30% if using Uber Eats drivers or 15% if the business uses its own.
Even if a customer purchases through the app but decides to pick it up in person, Uber still applies a 6% marketplace fee. There are additional charges for advertising.
DoorDash, meanwhile, does not charge an activation fee but charges a commission rate valued as a percentage of the order subtotal, on all orders: 30% for Marketplace Classic orders (or 33% for DashPass orders) and 14% for pick-up orders.
DoorDash has recently partnered with US supermarket giant Costco in New Zealand.
Members of DoorDash’s DashPass subscription service pay no delivery fee on Costco orders.
Those who aren’t Costco members can still get delivery via the app but they pay more for the items.
Monaghan, Wolfenden and Cartwright all believe businesses need to adapt to the change in consumer trends.
But Dairy and Business Owners Group chairman Sunny Kaushal believes the real threat from the rise in deliveries is to supermarkets, not dairies.
“With service and delivery fees, it gravitates to the weekly shop rather than a top-up. Take something like a dozen eggs where fees can easily add a third on to the cost,” Kaushal said.
Those delivery fees go to the service providers rather than the supermarkets.
“Delivery services also do not sell certain goods customers must buy in-store like cigarettes, vapes and heated tobacco.”
Kaushal said dairy owners are not seeing any impact from the rise of deliveries from supermarkets because the customers they interact with tend to be on foot or drive-by. Many are also cost-conscious and know the cost of delivery isn’t free.
He also acknowledged that Uber Eats and DoorDash aren’t an option outside the main centres and larger cities, and are definitely not an option in rural areas.
“That’s where dairies and service stations come into their own.
“The nature of convenience is such that if you’ve forgotten something from your Uber Eats order, you’re more likely to go to a dairy than order all over again.”
One aspect of delivery that Kaushal saw as an issue was the sale of alcohol.
He argued the proliferation of offerings on delivery apps for spirits such as gin and whisky was a cause for concern, particularly considering a quarter of 15-24-year-olds are classed as hazardous drinkers.
“Delivery of wine and spirits should only be by courier with proof of age and not some Uber Eats driver in a rush.”
Kaushal also called out public health experts, arguing that at face value increased use of delivery services suggested more processed food consumption and not less.
“For sure our guys sell pies and chips but at least you have to walk to the dairy and back again. The likes of DoorDash and Uber Eats reflect an increasingly sedentary lifestyle when people need to get out more.”
Foodstuffs was approached for comment on this story but declined.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
'Apartments on the site and more than likely offices' – Andrew Moore, CMP Construction.