After a 6 months trial in Paris, last-mile logistics startup Stuart has officially launched in the French capital.
Stuart connects a fleet of independent couriers with local merchants and e-commerce businesses. The service allows same-hour delivery within the city for companies of all sizes. They also announced the launch of their operations in Barcelona and London, where they had also conducted a series of tests before.
Founded by Clément Benoit (former co-founder and CEO of Resto-In) and Benjamin Chemla (former Co-Founder and CEO of Citycake) in 2015, the startup is reinventing the way merchandise flows through cities. Last year, Stuart received backing from Geopost (Groupe La Poste), which owns a 22 percent stake. Other investors include Jean-David Blanc (Allociné), Jacque-Antoine Granjon (Vente-privée.com) and Olivier Mathiot (Price Minister). The company has raised a total of €22 million to develop its service.
Stuart offers a platform that focuses on the enterprise side. The service allows merchants of all sizes to integrate last-mile delivery to their business. The company also provides an API, so e-commerce sites can integrate Stuart’s delivery option for their customers.
Merchants schedule their deliveries by adding the pick-up and delivery locations, then they choose the type of transportation they need (by foot, bike, motorbike, car or van). Stuart’s technology matches the delivery to the nearest courier. Once the delivery is approved by the carrier, the merchant can follow it in real time. Stuart charges an amount to the merchant automatically calculated by their algorithm, depending on the transport type, and the distance covered by the courier.
“We analyzed the development of e-commerce to local, and we figured out two things,” said Benjamin Chemla, in an interview with Rude Baguette. “On one hand, brick and mortar merchants were teaming up with e-commerce to generate additional revenue. On the other hand, e-merchants wanted to bring their products closer to their customers and shorten the delivery time. Last-mile delivery is real, and there were no actors before us.”
On the couriers side, Stuart allows a lot of flexibility, contrary to food delivery services such as Deliveroo or Take Eat Easy, Stuart’s couriers are not dependent on lunch and dinner peak times. They can make themselves available whenever they want, all day long and seven days a week. Food delivery is, of course, part of Stuart’s order flow, but they also deliver from local florists or clothing stores for instance.
Companies like Franprix, Sushi Shop, Monceau Fleurs, Pizza Hut and hundreds of local merchants or websites are already using Stuart today. Cdiscount (Groupe Casino) has even integrated Stuart’s API to provide food delivery directly through their website.
Most of the delivery platforms currently in business have a B-to-C business model. Stuart is clearly tackling the B-to-B market by offering its solution to every type of merchant and responding to an ongoing demand from the retail world.
“Working with Geopost (who owns Pickup Shop, the most widespread parcel shops network in Europe) gives us the potential to create a synergy between Stuart and Pickup stores,” Chemla said. “We have the faculty to substitute the solution offered by Stuart to customers who want to polish their delivery experience, transforming the parcel pickup locations in some sort of urban delivery hub.”
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