In Toronto, Tiggy currently has one dark store location at Queen and Richmond streets, with a second opening at St. Clair Ave. and Dufferin St. on Feb. 7. It operates four such centres in Vancouver, with another opening in Burnaby in March.
Bisovka acknowledges that Tiggy’s stated delivery time is “quite fast,” but says the company is confident in its capabilities because it was created with its own infrastructure, and its developers have “extensive experience” in Europe’s established ultra-fast delivery space. Tiggy’s average delivery time in Vancouver is 13 minutes, he says.
At the same time, its fulfillment centres are strategically located within high-density neighbourhoods, meaning that Tiggy’s bicycle couriers can make shorter trips while serving a larger customer base.
“From day one, Tiggy was built as a 100% micro fulfillment centre operator with the goal to provide customers with an unmatched ultra-fast grocery shopping experience,” says Bisovka. “We build our own micro fulfillment centres and design them as a compact warehouse for operational efficiency. We stock a wide assortment of handpicked products, and we have our own experienced cyclists that facilitate fast and reliable deliveries.”
Bisovka says customers in Vancouver have been “consistently increasing” the number of traditional grocery items purchased through Tiggy, such as bananas, dairy, fresh produce and other household items.
“This signals that there is a shift happening in consumers’ preferences of how daily essentials are being consumed and that the traditional grocery retail model is becoming less attractive for some consumers,” he says.
Tiggy recently raised $6.35 million in a seed funding round led by investment company Heartland, with additional participation from iNovia, Redbox Ventures, Global Founders Capital, FJ Labs and Banana Capital.
“The runway for ultra-fast delivery in Canada is exceptionally long, and we’re already seeing how it’s changing consumer habits for the better in Vancouver where we launched last fall,” says Bisovka. “There, our customers are cutting back on bulk buying and this significantly reduces food waste and the need for weekly trips to the grocery stores because they're ordering from Tiggy more frequently.”