LEROY MERLIN partners up with the tech start-up Innoship in order to streamline delivery management

French retailer LEROY MERLIN, 2^nd place on the DIY market in Romania, signs a partnership with Innoship, the start-up that recently received the first round of financing in order to become the largest aggregator for fast delivery options in Central and Eastern Europe. Starting in November, Innoship will manage the delivery of orders from the 18 stores, as well as online orders, this representing an essential step in a more extensive strategic project of development of the eCommerce platform carried out by LEROY MERLIN.

The tech start-up Innoship has developed a SaaS (software as a service) solution which allows retail and eCommerce companies such as LEROY MERLIN to efficiently manage their own courier contracts and several delivery options via machine learning algorithms.

The company was founded last year and has since achieved an amazing market adoption rate. Thus, in the beginning of 2020, Innoship implemented the solution for its first clients, reaching today a number of over 20.000 orders managed daily. Besides LEROY MERLIN, the platform manages interactions with courier services for other clients, such as: Miniprix, Zapatos, B-mall.ro, Kalapod, OLX, Depanero, Network One Distribution, Dentstore, Oralix, Topline, Xpertbeauty.ro, Arco Expert, Algernon, Green-Future.ro, Mezoni.ro, Generalmotor, Elefant, Studio Moderna and many others.

 “We had 2 reasons for joy when we finalized signing the partnership with LEROY MERLIN. Of course, the first one was succeeding in joining forces with the 2^nd place in DIY industry, a company that in its almost 10 years since it entered the Romanian market succeeded in offering a large variety of products at accessible prices, as well as household and gardening solutions. The second reason is that we have found in LEROY MERLIN a partner who understands the importance of customer experience, which can also be found in the Innoship’s DNA”, stated Daniel Nicolae, CEO and co-founder of Innoship.

French DIY retailer LEROY MERLIN currently owns 18 stores in Romania. The company has increased its local fiscal value by 21% in 2019, as compared to the previous year, reaching a number of over 2.500 employees. LEROY MERLIN owns stores in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Craiova, Ploiești, Brașov, Constanța, Sibiu, Suceava, Târgu Mureș, Bacău, Iași, Timișoara and Oradea.

“First of all, we are glad that LEROY MERLIN becomes, through this partnership, a supporter of Romanian start-ups. The partnership with Innoship lays the foundations of a major development from a logistical point of view, being no doubt, an important step in satisfying our clients’ needs. We have the conviction that together we will identify appropriate solutions adapted to the needs of the delivery market in Romania”, stated Frédéric Lamy, general director LEROY MERLIN.

Innoship streamlines costs related to courier services up to 25% and increases delivery performance up to 15% through a dynamic distribution of orders in accordance with the criteria selected by the retailer on the platform. The company aims to become the largest aggregator for delivery options in Central and Eastern Europe.

About Innoship

Innoship is a company that combines technology (in an easy to understand and simple to use way) with the know-how from the courier, supply chain and retail fields. The Innoship platform is an aggregator of multiple fast delivery options destined for the retail and eCommerce companies that democratize the access of retailers of all sizes to advanced technology through which they can efficiently manage their own courier contracts, thus offering to clients several delivery options and transport services at a higher quality while keeping the costs to a minimum.

 About LEROY MERLIN

LEROY MERLIN is the European leader on the DIY market, with a history of over 90 years as a retailer specialized in constructions, decorations and gardening.

Innovative company within ADEO, LEROY MERLIN owns 800 stores in 15 countries, in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. Over 115.000 colleagues are part of the LEROY MERLIN family.

Going through constant progress, ADEO has become the largest French company on the international market. At the moment, companies of the ADEO group are recognized all over the world via “Great Place to Work Institute” prizes.

In Romania there are 18 LEROY MERLIN stores with over 2500 employees in 13 cities: București, Cluj-Napoca, Craiova, Ploiești, Brașov, Constanța, Sibiu, Suceava, Târgu Mureș, Bacău, Iași, Timișoara and Oradea.

LEROY MERLIN ROMANIA SRL

Str. Icoanei nr. 11-13, Sector 2, București, J40/13616/2004, RO 16702141