Glovo Local launches to help small businesses thrive amid economic downturn

New program gives restaurants and retailers a toolkit to help them digitize their business while growing online channels.

Glovo aims to catalyze the online growth of small to medium businesses, as only 20% of merchants have a digital presence globally.

The launch coincides with research commissioned by Glovo showing 80% of restaurants and retailers are worried about their future growth prospects.

With inflation and rising utility prices putting pressure on both disposable consumer income and business margins, Glovo— a pioneering multi-category app —has today launched Glovo Local, a new program for small and medium-sized businesses in the retail and restaurant industries to enable them to digitize their products and services in order to boost their growth.

Launching in all 25 markets in which Glovo operates, Glovo Local is the first such program in Europe, Africa, and Asia that provides a consolidated portfolio of services and solutions for small & medium-sized businesses, specific to their needs.

Services available to them include digital and operational solutions for their own channels and stores; dedicated tools to help them manage their operations at point of sale (from data insights to providing supply chain solutions) and grow their businesses with marketing and advertising capabilities to help them reach new customers and increase their visibility.

All of this is embedded in an ecosystem of learning and development opportunities with dedicated tutorials and support within their digital journey.

Glovo Local is an all-in-one hub where local businesses can pick and choose solutions based on their needs and wants through a single site.

Rodrigo Alier, Executive Director, Partners & Brands at Glovo, said: “Only 20% of merchants globally conduct their business online—highlighting the urgent need for more to find routes to digitization. More than 100,000 of the businesses we work with globally are small local businesses, and the cost-of-living crisis is weighing heavily on them.

Glovo aims to have more than 250,000 small local businesses online by the end of 2023. We acknowledge the role we play in helping those businesses thrive, and with Glovo Local we put them front and center of our strategy, doubling down on our tech and operational efforts to bring them more and better solutions to boost their businesses.

Using the tools Glovo Local provides, we can help them reach more customers, accelerating their way to growth and sustainable profitability. This is how we pave the way for businesses to grow and boost local economies.

“From research, we’ve recently conducted in nine countries, it’s clear that businesses are collectively expecting a tough time ahead. Every second business sees itself unprepared for the future. In the UK alone, that number goes up to 80%, with two-thirds already in survival mode. Glovo Local and all its brand new technological capabilities have been developed with one goal in mind – to help these businesses not only see a way through current economic turmoil but to go from surviving to thriving.”

The launch of Glovo Local coincides with research commissioned by Glovo in nine markets. It found that 80% of small and medium-sized UK businesses in the retail and restaurant industries are worried about their future profitability, and 32% were facing the challenge of reduced consumer spending.

The research also shows that almost half of businesses in Spain (46%) are finding it difficult to keep up with the pace of change and 57% in Romania say consumers are more focused on digital experiences than in-store.

Many restaurants, retailers, and grocery businesses surveyed across Europe and Africa said that they scaled up their marketing and advertising efforts to combat lower consumer demand, but often lack the resources they need to carry out broad marketing activities. Glovo Local opens up vital routes for businesses into growth, innovation, and continuous customer experience.