Cash and carry chain store Makro has acquired a majority stake in South African last mile delivery startup WumDrop, in a move that will allow it to speed up delivery of orders to customers.
WumDrop, which is available in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Durban, allows users to request the pickup and dropoff of packages via their phones.
The purchase of a majority stake in the company will allow Makro to shrink the window between customer order placement and delivery from three days to three hours for customers located within 20 kilometres of a Makro store.
WumDrop said the deal will also cement its ability to offer lower and simpler, flat prices across the board, the benefit of which will be passed on to new and existing WumDrop customers, which include The Foschini Group, BOTTLES, Standard Bank, and Zando.
Makro has already rolled WumDrop out to 16 stores in Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria, and Johannesburg, and says the initial results are pleasing.
“WumDrop just works. Their tech is extremely flexible and solid, allowing integration with any retailer big or small, and after extensive testing it was apparent to us that their solution provided the kind of transparency, speed and flexibility for our customers that we just couldn’t say no to,” said Dean Bauer, Makro supply chain director.
“We are incredibly excited to work so closely with a business like Makro, which backs our mission to eradicate the anxiety one normally experiences while waiting for a delivery; that your delivery guy might or might not get to you at some point in the giant window between 9am and 5pm,” WumDrop founder Simon Hartley said.
