“We don’t call ourselves a food delivery platform but, rather, a delivery platform--because the idea is to deliver you anything you need within 30 minutes,” says Loren Danesi, general manager of Wolt Luxembourg.
In other words, the company’s freelance couriers will deliver sushi and pizza from restaurants but also eggs, milk, an iPhone cable, whatever you need (as long as the shop you want it from is on the platform). With this, the idea is both to outdo the likes of Amazon when it comes to speedy delivery--if you really need that iPhone cable--while also supporting local shops.
“Diapers,” says Danesi, thinking of another example. “In general, if you’re missing diapers… it’s for right now.”
People in the grand duchy will already be familiar with the concept, as Wolt’s competitors are numerous: Wedely, Takeaway.com, Foostix, Goosty, Foozo and Miammiam.lu offer similar services.
Asked how Wolt will differ, Danesi says: “We want to emphasise customer experience as our main priority. We have an app that is very easy to use, very simple, very modern, with a live tracker (which not everyone has).”
The other obvious difference is that Wolt, as mentioned, will deliver more than just takeaway orders from restaurants. The selling point appears ultimately to be ease, i.e., for people who want things delivered to their doorstep quickly (meaning within 30 minutes). Danesi also emphasises the support team, which will troubleshoot issues and respond within one minute.
Business model
The app is actually three apps: one for users, one for merchants (restaurants/shops) and one for the freelancers who make up the delivery workforce.
Users select the food or item they want, agree to the estimated delivery time and pay; they can then follow the delivery process via a live tracker. Merchants receive requests and can accept or reject each one, confirm whether the average preparation time applies (or report a delay, whereupon the user will be informed) and view a dashboard with some stats.
For their part, the freelance delivery workers can view available jobs and what they pay, and can accept or reject each one. According to Danesi, the advantage for them is flexibility: they can work as much or as little as they want. Across Europe, Wolt delivery workers put in about 10-15 hours a week on average.
“It’s something that often supplements their income from other sources,” adds Henrik Pankakoski, Wolt’s regional general manager for the northern region, which includes Luxembourg. “They might be studying, retired or have another full-time or part-time job.”
Within this setup, the company has two sources of revenue: first, delivery fees from the customer; and second, a commission that the merchants pay to be on the platform and to use Wolt’s delivery service.
Ready to launch
At the time of writing (mid-February), some 200 restaurants in the grand duchy are already signed up on the platform. The company’s ambitions are set higher than that, however: “In the end, we would like to partner with all the restaurants in Luxembourg,” says Pankakoski. “There’s no reason why we couldn’t do that.” For Wolt, the logic is clear: the better the selection on the app, the more customers there will be--which in turn will benefit restaurants.
The rollout, fast approaching, will happen in three phases: first, an internal launch to check that all the basics are working; then a soft launch with friends and a few restaurants and freelance couriers; and finally the full launch.
Initially, the delivery area will be restricted to Luxembourg City before expansion “very soon” to other cities.
Luxembourg represents the 30th country of operation for the company, which was founded in Helsinki in 2014 and was acquired by the American DoorDash in 2022. The Wolt brand in particular is operated in 25 countries, making the grand duchy the 26th.