A sector that, until just over a year ago, was considered a niche, and to this day is constantly growing. This growth is reflected in the increase of more than 140% of the online food sale during April 2020 throughout Europe, or the 70% increase in cold SEUR services during the Christmas campaign.
Faced with mobility restrictions, closure of premises and other inconveniences that must be faced by multiple restaurants and grocery stores, the emergence of cold SEUR in many of these businesses has been a new and necessary way to reach its customers.
Faced with the difficulties encountered, food companies and hoteliers have been forced to adapt to distribution methods other than what they were used to, in order to continue operating within the new normal. Some cases that exemplify what has meant integrating this service into product shipments are Exotic Fruit Box, Carnelena or Cárnicas Iruki, 3 Spanish food companies that have not only managed to reach their regular customers normally through our cold service, but have managed to improve their sales figures. So much so, that the number of SMEs that have started using cold SEUR has increased by up to 50% since last year.
We cannot also overlook one of the main challenges facing the online food sector. This is the retention of consumers acquired during the pandemic and the months that follow. Customer loyalty is now one of the priorities of e-shops to continue selling, and brands invest up to 80% in attracting new customers, according to Ecommerce University. Despite this difficulty, everything seems to indicate that the transport of fresh food and produce, despite being a novel service for many businesses and customers, will not prove a passing thing once full normality has returned.
The increase in shipments mentioned also undoubtedly responds to the growing demand from consumers. It is a circle of demand and adaptation between these companies and consumers,which has given rise to new habits and forms of consumption. As we recently shared in the analysis of the Digital Report 2021 in Spain, prepared by Hootsuite and WeAreSocial, it is the food sector that has grown the most over the last year, up to 39.7%.
In this sense, the logistics and transport sector comes into play to respond to the increase in demand, and that is why today, thousands of users have seen how COLD SEUR is a key service to be able to receive all kinds of fresh products and food from the tranquility and security offered by their homes in less than 24 hours.
One of the main advantages offered by the cold solution lies in the use of the most cutting-edge technology to guarantee the quality and freshness in each shipment.
The cold chambers and transport fleet incorporate IoT (Internet of the Things) technology, which allows us to establish traceability control and know the temperature of shipments in real time,thus ensuring that the chain of cold from origin to destination is met.
Being able to plot the temperature at all times adds value to the cold service, since it allows us to guarantee the quality of eachshipment, which translates into total safety and trust on the part of our customers.
The businesses that entrust their shipments in this service are not only able to reach the homes of their customers in 24 hours, but also have in their hands the possibility to operate and establish commercial links with other companies efficiently and safely.
In this way, the cold SEUR service also becomes a link to carry out B2B operations,such as from suppliers to restaurants, thus achieving a mutual benefit.