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Getir has arrived in London
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Getir opens for deliveries in London, UK
The booming London delivery market has a new competitor. Getir, backed by Silicon Valley investor Michael Moritz, promises deliveries from local stores and supermarkets “within minutes”.
It’s not hard to see why consumers and investors are interested alike—the market for home deliveries has flourished as people tried their best to stay at home since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the market for fast food deliveries alone up 23% year on year.
As Getir plants its feet in London and begins its 2021 growth plans, you may be wondering about where Getir came from, what Getir does and what Getir means for London (and potentially further afield in the future). We’ve got you covered—here’s everything you need to know about the London Getir launch.
What is Getir?
Getir is a Turkish-based delivery service that aims to deliver products from local stores and supermarkets to your doorstep. Co-founder Nazim Salur says of ordering through Getir “it’s faster than if you were to shop for it yourself, even if you have a store on your street.”
Getir, which comes from the Turkish word to “get” or “bring”, currently operates in 10 Turkish cities, including Istanbul and Ankara, making London the first (but likely not the last) of its international steps.
The speedy grocery delivery service Getir provides has proved hugely popular in its native Turkey. Despite challenging economic conditions (the 2018 devaluation of the Lira, Turkey’s national currency, wiped nearly 30% of Getir’s value) it was able to raise $128 million in investment (including Sir Michael Moritz’s Crankstart) at an impressive valuation of $850 million.
As of writing, Getir’s most prominent competitors are likely to include Amazon PrimeNow (which includes deliveries both from Amazon themselves and local Morrisons’ supermarkets, assuming you have a participating store nearby), Deliveroo, JustEat and UberEats.
Unlike those final three, Getir doesn’t (as of writing) offer fast food deliveries, but (if true to their word) will certainly have their competitors beaten in the time taken from order to delivery—advertising deliveries in “around 10 minutes” on their Twitter.
Getir’s Terms & Conditions for its Turkish operation do refer to food deliveries from participating restaurants, however, so it may be fair to expect them to enter the market at some point in the future.
Where does Getir operate?
Within the UK, Getir currently only operates in London. While it’s not yet clear whether or not they have plans to expand outside of the capital, given their ambitious approach to expansion it might be fair to expect Getir somewhere near you sometime in the future.
Outside of the UK, Getir services many of the largest cities in Turkey, including Istanbul, Ankara, Bursa and İzmir. London won’t be the last city they expand to either—plans are already in place to grow the service into Mexico City, São Paulo and Paris.
Where does Getir deliver in London?
Currently, Getir’s delivery service is only available within Central London. This may change in the future, but for now if you’re outside of Zone 2 your chances of being within their service zones are fairly slim.
Here are the regions within London that Getir currently services:
What does Getir deliver?
Getir plans to sell any product you’d be able to purchase from a supermarket, from toiletries and cleaning products to alcohol and tobacco. Mr Salur said of its product range “whatever is legal [where we operate], we can sell.” This will be Getir’s first time entering into the delivery market for both—you aren’t currently able to purchase alcohol or tobacco online in Turkey.
Here are all the product types you’re currently able to order through the Getir app in London.
As you can see, the ETA from a location in Westminster is 15 minutes—quite impressive, and almost certainly quicker than getting dressed, popping out to your local shop, checking out and walking home.
Final Word
While it's still far too early to predict whether or not Getir will succeed or fail, it should be encouraging for consumers that a new, well-backed player has entered a London home delivery market that was quickly becoming dominated by larger players that were squeezing out smaller competitors.
While certainly a well-saturated market, investors should also be intrigued to see how Getir performs, and whether or not consumers hold any brand loyalty to the likes of Deliveroo, or whether they just want the best deal delivered the fastest. Only time will tell.