What we order and when. Wolt Israel CEO tells all

• Published date: 02 October 2024
• Author: Naama Sikuler and Shira Sapir
• Publication title: Globes (Rishon LeZion, Israel)

But the person who established Wolt as the undisputed queen of delivery has remained fairly anonymous. Eshkol is now moving to a position in Wolt's global management, and a man with an equally impressive resume will step into her shoes: Tomer Cohen, BuyMe CEO. Just prior to the transition, "Globes" met with Eshkol at the Wolt Israel headquarters in south Tel Aviv, a green building that has gradually taken over more and more offices and floors in the complex

In this special farewell interview, Eshkol talks about the journey to fulfill her plans for expansion, shares the challenges of four rocky years between the Covid pandemic and the October 7 war, and also responds to grievances against Wolt, from its terms of employment, claims of wild driving on the part of couriers, to tangles with the Israel Tax Authority.

"It's called hunger, not food"

"I arrived at Wolt in October 2020, a company with a great product and brand, when the app was already the coolest thing on the Tel Aviv food scene. Still, even then I believed this success had space for broader value, and we started two journeys simultaneously - one was going beyond Tel Aviv, and the other was understanding it was possible to expand beyond restaurants. Today, we already have 80% coverage of the population, and every third order is non-restaurant.

"In every sector, we plan the most appropriate value proposition, the one that will require you to choose me every day: customers, couriers, and businesses. I'm obsessed with customer experience, and I'm always learning for constant improvement."

The word 'obsession' comes up a lot in conversation. For example, the process of adapting supermarket shopping to Wolt, for both customers and businesses. "Every time someone types something in the search bar and it's not there, we send a message to the supermarket, 'Hi, please note that you don't have this certain type of shampoo.' Every time someone is mistakenly delivered 5% cottage cheese instead of 9%, we monitor that data and forward it to the business. Our culture is obsessed with the learning experience, and luckily, we have volumes of order data that allow us to learn a lot in the process; almost all the big supermarket chains work with Wolt, such as Shufersal and Victory.

"For us, it means believing in something, understanding what the customer experience should be, and concluding what's right for the businesses. To succeed in the supermarket sector is very difficult and competitive, with very smart players, and it is something we're very proud of. "

You described two vectors, vertical and geographic. Which one has been more significant in terms of growth over the last four years?

"Both. Firstly, you can't just be in Tel Aviv, because we don't live in the State of Tel Aviv. You have to know how to work in Jerusalem or in small villages, otherwise you're not going to be attractive. Besides the additional income, it expands the customer value. 30% of customers order from outside their area. Secondly, you can't just do restaurants, because then you're only in one segment. The first city we launched after I came in was Netanya. Imagine the percentage of the population then, as compared with today. In addition to the fact that today, every third order is in retail. Both have significant volume in terms of expansion - financial and conceptual."

Are you more a startup or a service company?

"What's special about Wolt is that growth is in both the digital technology and the operative environments. I think there's entrepreneurship here, like at a high-tech company or startup. It's called hunger, and it's not about the food we deliver, but the hunger to create. I'm originally an engineer, I worked in a high-tech environment, and the feeling of entrepreneurship is very similar. But there is an operative environment here, and that's something unique to the Israeli landscape. There are startups that know how to dream big, as we do here, but we can learn from every order and every interaction. So, this is entrepreneurship in a scale-up environment that is also digital, and also operative."

Wolt is also no longer just a connecting thread between businesses and...