Careem is expanding its groceries offering by launching Careem Quik in the UAE, a quick-commerce e-grocery service enabled by a hyperlocal dark store network, aiming to deliver 24/7 within 15 minutes.
Quik uses a dense 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, the company controls the entire supply chain process, from ordering and fulfilment, to managing inventory and delivery. When an order is placed on the app, order pickers – called ‘Quikers’ – collect and process the order in dark stores that are fully optimised for rapid fulfilment, before handing them off to dedicated Quik delivery Captains.
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 optimise the entire delivery supply chain to bring better speed, value, and quality of experience to the market.”
Careem Quik was made available to customers in select active service areas of Dubai from 29 November and will be introduced across the region in stages. Quik will cater to JVC, the Marina, and Business Bay 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 throughout the region.
The online grocery market in the UAE grew by around 50% in 2021 and is expected to generate $1.6 billion by the end of the year, but only 7.8% 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.
