ICAx for e-retailers: where parcels travel with the food

Stockholm / SE. (ica) ICA continues to make everyday life easier for customers by launching «ICA Paket» – a new smart parcel service from ICAx, innovation hub of Sweden’s ICA Gruppen AB. The service has been available since 11 October in southern and western Sweden and will soon be available nationwide.

Over the past two years, ICAx has been working on various parcel logistics solutions with the aim of creating smart and efficient innovations for ICA stores that deliver parcels. ICA stores receive countless shipments of food and parcels to their customers on a daily basis, and now ICAx is launching a new parcel service where the parcels are shared with existing truck transports to the ICA stores from ICA’s warehouse. In this way, unused space in existing transports is utilised. The parcels are delivered via a manual counter or parcel locker at ICA stores that are agents for ICA Paket.

«We are very proud that we are finally going live with ICA Paket and we are convinced that there are many e-retailers and customers who will want to test the service. Our hope is that the service will be rolled out nationwide shortly. 9 out of 10 ICA stores are parcel agents or have a parcel locker today,» says Samuel Young, head of ICAx.

Adlibris, the largest online bookstore in the Nordic region, has already joined the parcel service. «We are pleased that Adlibris is the first to offer ICA parcels and that we are a selected partner of ICA in their new venture. With ICA Paket, we further strengthen Adlibris’ delivery offer and we are convinced that our customers will appreciate this new delivery option,» says Nicklas Törnqvist, Supply Chain Manager at Adlibris.

ICA Paket is a collaboration between ICAx, Earlybird and Ingrid. The service has been available since 11 October in southern and western Sweden and is available as a delivery option for residents in areas where any of the more than 100 ICA stores that have joined the service are located. Apotek Hjärtat will also be joining the service shortly.

ICA Gruppen AB (publ) is one of the Nordic region’s leading retail companies with a focus on food and health. The Group includes ICA Sweden and Rimi Baltic, which mainly operate grocery stores, ICA Real Estate, which owns and manages properties, ICA Bank, which offers financial services, ICA Insurance and Apotek Hjärtat, which operates pharmacies. In 2022, ICA Gruppen had sales of approximately SEK 136 billion.

ICAx is ICA Gruppen’s innovation hub that was launched in 2017 with the aim of strengthening and extending ICA Gruppen’s business through innovation. ICAx is tasked with identifying and analysing new business opportunities and innovations, and then translating them into new or updated offerings for customers. The work within ICAx includes research, digital development projects, strategic partnerships with other companies and investments in start-ups.