 "Now, an 'in-car' product delivery service")
Premium carmaker Volvo and Sweden’s leading online grocery retailer Mat.se have collaborated with TO THE NEW Digital (TTND) to launch the world’s first commercially available ‘in-car’ delivery service.
The innovative delivery functionality works through a digital key that allows Mat.se one-time access to a customer’s Volvo car for delivering the ordered product. The service is currently available only to Volvo customers in Sweden’s Gothenburg who subscribe to the Volvo ‘On Call’ service. The plan is to soon introduce the service at more locations in Sweden and other countries.
Mat.se’s e-commerce head Mikael Andersson says: “We are very excited about the launch of the Volvo ‘in-car’ delivery. We believe this service can fundamentally change the way e-commerce businesses operate. It aims to take customer experience and ease to a different level.” He applauded TTND and its team for the role they played as development partners to Mat.se.
Describing the purpose of the service, TTND Executive Vice-President (Technology Services) Narinder Kumar told Business Standard: “The aim is to provide seamless delivery by cutting down on delivery time and dependencies.”
TTND, which was also involved in managing and executing the social media campaign for the Centre’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, is a Singapore-headquartered internet products and services company that combines the power of analytics, technology, marketing and content for digital transformation.
Explaining how the service came into being, Kumar says: “Volvo cars came up with the idea and Mat.se collaborated with them to provide this functionality. Volvo cars provided the application programming interface to be able to integrate with any third party and TTND integrated this service into the back-end system.”
In the past, TTND created a custom e-commerce platform for Mat.se. The platform includes the front-end site as well as the back-end system, including supply chain, delivery and warehouse management.
More From This Section
Illustrating how the service will function, Kumar says, “A customer orders certain grocery products or food items from Mat.se on his way to office. As he works in office his car is parked in the parking lot. So, if he selects the ‘deliver to my car’ option, the delivery man can deliver the product to his car without waiting for him to receive it physically. The customer does not have to do anything after placing the order.”
Kumar explains that the Volvo interface lets the delivery man locate the car and use a digital key, which functions as a token that expires after a single use, to execute the delivery by opening the customer’s Volvo car and depositing the product. The customer is notified when the digital key is used. Once the delivery is completed, the car is secure again.
The key focus appears to be on minimal customer involvement after the point of placing the order. “Personal interaction would defeat the entire purpose of seamless delivery,” says Kumar.
While Kumar says TTND has the expertise to provide similar services in India in collaboration with Indian carmakers, he also reveals that no such project is in the works in India at the moment.