Neighbourly deliveries

Supermarket Carrefour has launched a new service in France which enables customers to shop online and have their goods delivered by a “voisin” (or neighbour). The service – called “Merci Voisin” – is essentially a crowdsourced delivery service.

Customers can use the Merci Voision app to order deliveries, and also sign up to offer their services as a delivery-provider (for which they receive a fee).

The service operates from 8:30 am to 9:30 pm.

Carrefour has also been offering crowdsourced deliveries in Belgium – working through bpost’s bringr. In a statement issued earlier this year, Carrefour explained: “bringr is a mobile application developed by bpost. It messages other smartphone users based on their location (close to the delivery point) and their availability so they can deliver another customer’s order at the time and to the place that they specify.