The 2am kickoff of England’s World Cup knockout match against Mexico on Monday created an unexpected opportunity for retailers selling through delivery apps.
Uber Eats, which works with partners including Waitrose, Co-op, Asda and Morrisons has provided insight, exclusively to Retail Week, about what retail and grocery products its users were looking for during the early hours on Monday morning.
Searches for coffee, Red Bull and Monster all more than doubled compared to midnight to 3am the night before, with many fans likely expected to work the next day despite a post-4am finish to the match. Energy drink searches generally were up by 158%.
Also helping to keep watchers up were a selection of late-night snacks, with searches for crisps (+95%), chocolate (+78%), pizza (+74%) and popcorn (+204%) all increasing.
Some users were clearly preparing for breakfast, with searches for bacon and avocados doubling versus the earliest hours of Sunday morning. That mirrored data from Uber Eats’ wider delivery service, which showed that hash browns entered the top-three most ordered items, with pancakes and breakfast muffins also seeing a rise in orders.
Uber also noted that Mexican-inspired dishes like chicken burrito bowls and beef burritos dropped out of the 10 most ordered items list, having featured there during the Croatia match.
Most surprising, however, was a 114% rise in searches for pregnancy tests.
Uber Eats general manager for grocery and retail in the UK Katie Hunter said: “Major sporting moments always bring out fascinating shifts in how people shop on-demand, especially when games span across different time zones.
“From late-night caffeine boosts to early-hours popcorn cravings, we’re working round the clock to connect customers with what they need, when they need, so they can focus on cheering on their team.”
The days of massive supermarkets opening for 24 hours are in the past, however. Given the game would have followed on from Sunday trading hours, many of these would have had to open specially in the early hours of Monday morning.
That means that for shoppers in many parts of the country, rapid delivery was the only option for buying groceries from a major retailer. Co-op announced before the game that it was extending its online opening hours to 4am at 130 stores.
Given the warm temperatures over the weekend, the retailer said that it was expecting a rise in sales of sharing packs of Magnum ice creams, on top of beers and soft drinks.
Assuming there are no extended delays to kick-off times, England will not have to play in such a late slot again, even if they make it all the way through to the final. The 10pm match against Norway on Saturday, starting at 5pm local time in Miami, is the latest scheduled game that England could possibly be involved in, as well as the potential third-place playoff.
No comments yet