It’s 7.40pm on a Tuesday in Margate. Friends are due at eight, there are no dips in the fridge and nobody fancies a trip out in the drizzle. So out comes the phone, open goes Deliveroo, and a thumb-sized picture of a tub of houmous decides which brand gets invited to the party.

Since 6 October, that shopper can fill the basket from Aldi too. Aldi launched rapid delivery with Deliveroo’s new Shop & Deliver service from eight stores, including Margate, with plans to add more in early 2027. Tesco is now on both Deliveroo and Uber Eats, and Asda already runs Deliveroo across more than 850 stores. Quick commerce (grocery delivered in under an hour, usually through an app) has moved from side project to proper channel. The catch? Most food and drink product content was built for a big-shop website or a desktop screen, not a tiny tile in a delivery app.

How Big Is Quick Commerce in UK Grocery?

Big enough to plan for, and growing faster than the rest of online. IGD forecasts quick commerce will grow by 10.7% a year between 2026 and 2031, reaching £5.5bn and 15% of online grocery sales. The wider grocery market is forecast to grow at 3.3%.

The retailers’ own numbers back that up. IGD reports Sainsbury’s quick commerce sales passed £700m in 2025, up 69% year on year, while Tesco Whoosh topped £400m in 2025/26, up 51%. Usage is creeping up too, from 19% of shoppers in November 2024 to 22% in March 2026, and a third of users now order at least weekly. Among 18 to 24 year olds, almost half have used it in the last four weeks.

Then there’s Christmas. Kantar found online took a 12.2% share of the festive grocery shop last year, growing 7.5%. Plenty of forgotten cranberry sauce and emergency party food is about to be ordered from the sofa.

Why Does the Quick Commerce Shelf Work Differently?

Because the shopper starts in a different place, with a different job to do. IGD found 41% of quick commerce shoppers begin with the app they want to use, rising to 53% of 25 to 34 year olds. Only 28% start with a specific retailer. They’re not loyal to a store; they’re loyal to tonight.

The mission is different as well. 77% of quick commerce shoppers are on a “food for now” mission, while 81% of shoppers on retailer websites are doing a main shop. Nobody is scrolling through 14 pages of yoghurt. They type a word, glance at the first few results and tap.

And the shelf is getting more crowded. As Tesco puts larger stores onto the apps, IGD notes the range on offer can jump from around 2,500 products to upwards of 20,000. More choice for the shopper means more competition for your listing.

What Does a Product Look Like on a Phone Screen?

Smaller than you’d like. When Cambridge University’s Engineering Design Centre helped develop the original image guidelines with GS1, Dr Sam Waller put it neatly: different flavours and sizes “can look identical” on mobiles once a pack shot is “reduced to the size of a postage stamp”. Eek.

The fix is a mobile ready hero image: a simplified version of your pack image that stays recognisable at thumbnail size. GS1 updated its guideline in August 2026 (Release 2.2) and the principle is simple. Every hero image should answer four questions, which GS1 calls the 4Ws: who is the brand, what is it, which variety is it and hoW much of it is there.

Does it work? When the guidelines first launched, Unilever reported that Magnum’s hero images led to a 24% sales increase in an eight-week split test with a retailer. That was 2018. The screens haven’t got much bigger.

What Should Food and Drink Brands Fix First?

You don’t need a huge budget to make a difference. Start with the basics that decide whether a hurried shopper picks you or the product next door.

Hero images built for thumbnails. Check the 4Ws on your top sellers. If you can’t tell your salted from your sweet chilli at arm’s length, neither can your shopper.
Product titles that match how people search. Food-for-now shoppers type short, everyday words. Put brand, product, variety and size in a clear order, with the important bit first.
One set of approved content everywhere. Your product might appear on a retailer website, a retailer’s own rapid app, Uber Eats and Deliveroo, each pulling data in its own way. A single master set of images and copy stops the drift.
The right range for the mission. Sharing packs, chilled drinks, ready-to-eat and “tonight’s treat” lines suit quick commerce. Make sure those listings have your best content, not your oldest.

Where Do Retail Media and Promotions Fit?

Paid visibility on delivery apps and retailer platforms can put you in front of the right shopper at the right moment. Tesco’s own pitch for its aggregator move leans on “the power of Clubcard”, so loyalty pricing will follow shoppers onto the apps.

Our advice is to fix the product page before paying to send people to it. A sponsored slot that leads to a blurry image and a confusing title is money spent on someone else’s sale. Less hype. More plumbing.

How jellybean Can Help

We’ve been helping food and drink brands win at the shelf since 1987, and the shelf now fits in a pocket. Our design team creates mobile ready hero images and pack adaptations that stay true to your brand. Our digital team can audit how your products look and read across retailer sites and delivery apps, so you can see exactly where the gaps are.

Our shopper marketing team plans ranges and promotions around real missions like the Tuesday night dips run. Our paid media and content specialists then make sure the right people find you, and that the page they land on does its job.

So here’s a little homework for tonight. Open a delivery app, search for your category and look at your product as a shopper would. Would you pick it?

Want to find out how we can help? Get in touch with the jellybean team, we’d love to have a chat. Email info@jellybeancreative.co.uk or call 01372 227950.

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