Liam Griffin, CEO of Addison Lee:

Since the first lockdown last March, we’ve seen our courier services grow by 30% as shopping behaviour shifted online. At the same time, we have seen shoppers come to expect that their purchases will be delivered at a time and date of their choosing. We created AL Now in response this trend – offering a simple, speedy and seamless delivery solution designed to help London’s local businesses meet changing customer demands.

Love local: helping London businesses get ahead this Valentine’s Day.

The service launches ahead of Valentine’s Day as new data from Addison Lee suggests that with lockdown, Brits are planning to turn their back on retail giants like Amazon and look to local businesses to provide a special gift for loved ones. Almost half (47%) of those celebrating this year want to support local businesses in their community by buying from them this Valentine’s Day.

But findings suggest that barriers to buying local remain. More than half of those who plan to celebrate Valentine’s (54%) said they’d be more likely to shop with local businesses if they offered a quick and efficient local delivery service, while 34% were worried that they wouldn’t be able to pick up Valentine’s gifts this year with shops being shut.

AL Now has been designed to overcome these barriers by providing a tailored solution for smaller, independent businesses who are moving towards a delivery model to serve their customers as the pandemic continues.