Careem expands grocery delivery with Quik dark stores for local delivery

10x Industry

Mita Srinivasan
10x Industry
Published:

Careem expands grocery delivery with Quik dark stores for local delivery

The online grocery market in the UAE grew by around 50 percent in 2021 and is expected to generate $1.6 billion by the end of the year, but only 7.8 percent of the country’s entire grocery sector has been made available for online orders.

Careem is expanding its groceries offering on its app with the launch of Quik, a new grocery delivery service that promises customers supermarket competitive prices across a range of everyday grocery items 24/7 in as little as 15 minutes.

Careem Quik was made available to customers in select active service areas of Dubai from the end of November 2021 and will be introduced across the region in stages. Delivery to JVC, the Marina, and Business Bay is expected by the end of 2021 before expanding to most areas in Dubai by early 2022, with over 100 dark stores expected by the end of next year to cater throughout the region.

Quik uses a network of hyperlocal dark stores and advanced fulfilment and inventory management tech to prepare orders in under two minutes and make item replacements a thing of the past. Warehouse infrastructure will be automated over time with the support of Careem’s Kiwibot partnership which uses robotic carts to speed up the process even further for Careem Captains. Through Careem Quik’s dark store network, Careem controls the entire supply chain process, from ordering and fulfillment, to managing inventory and delivery.

Careem’s Head of Groceries, Chase Lario, said, “We’re on a mission to simplify lives and give back time to spend on the things that matter. Making your grocery shopping 10x easier is a small first step on that journey. Thanks to Careem's customer-centric app and our extensive experience in last-mile delivery, we can optimize the entire delivery supply chain to bring better speed, value, and quality of experience to the market.”

The online grocery market in the UAE grew by around 50 percent in 2021 and is expected to generate $1.6 billion by the end of the year, but only 7.8 percent of the country’s entire grocery sector has been made available for online orders. The launch of Careem Quik is the latest milestone in the growth of Careem’s Super App which offers multiple everyday services to simplify and improve lives for millions of people across the region.