Optimizing refrigeration-unit efficiency using AWS with Delivery Hero

Delivery Hero serves almost 70 countries across Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. As a pioneer of quick commerce, the company operates a robust network of strategically located Dmarts to rapidly fulfill customers’ orders in 30 minutes or less.

As the assortment of fresh and frozen food items in Dmarts steadily expanded, utility usage also rose. To reduce energy usage and meet sustainability goals, Delivery Hero wanted to provide actionable insights for store managers that would help them optimize the efficiency of their refrigeration units. To develop an IoT, cloud-based solution, the company engaged AWS Professional Services to help achieve its desired business outcomes. “Sustainability is embedded in how we operate—from renewable energy sourcing to electrified deliveries,” says Emre Tarakçıoğlu, senior real estate portfolio manager at Delivery Hero. “Using AWS, we can measure, optimize, and scale our impact globally.”

In collaboration with the AWS Professional Services team, Delivery Hero developed a proof of concept. To collect data from sensors installed in its refrigerators, the company uses AWS IoT Core, a service that securely connects devices to the cloud. “We did not have extensive IoT experience, so there was a real learning curve for us,” says Nicole Sutton, senior director of group real estate at Delivery Hero. “To get the project off the ground, we learned from the AWS team’s technical expertise and retail experience. We felt very well taken care of from the beginning.”

Delivery Hero prioritized making the solution user-friendly for non-technical employees, such as store managers and food pickers. So, Delivery Hero set up dashboards for visualizing its data using Amazon Quick Sight, which powers data-driven organizations with unified business intelligence at scale.

The company also deployed Amazon Q in Quick Sight, which helps store managers get insights faster and make better decisions with a generative artificial intelligence (AI) assistant. Store managers can ask questions in their own words—such as, “show me yesterday’s electricity usage and compare it with last week’s”—to obtain near-immediate insights. “We had to create a solution that would be plug-and-play for the people operating our stores,” says Sutton. “Amazon Quick Sight helps us reduce internal resource needs while empowering our managers to gain business insights easily. With the service’s built-in AI, they can ask questions directly in the tool and get answers instantly without needing additional training.”

To select a candidate market in which to pilot the solution, Delivery Hero evaluated volumes of orders processed and the enthusiasm of the local teams who would potentially deliver the project. That process led the company to choose Dubai for the pilot. “Based on our pilot, we discovered an opportunity to save approximately 8 percent on electricity costs,” says Tarakçıoğlu. “We pitched those results to our leadership team, and that helped achieve their buy-in for scaling the solution globally.”

Delivery Hero also identified hardware improvements during its pilot, prompting the team to redevelop and repilot the solution in Greece. By making those hardware changes, Delivery Hero cut the time it takes to install the solution from 1 week to just 4 hours.

During its second pilot, Delivery Hero learned that its solution could be used in other use cases. Store managers can track the optimal temperature of their assets to lower their utilities and uphold the company’s high food-quality standards. “We have a reliable source for mitigating food safety risks that we never really had before,” says Sutton. “That peace of mind has been invaluable.”

For a company already committed to sustainability, the results underscored how data-driven decisions could strengthen its mission even further. “Our collaboration alongside AWS empowers us to use data not just for efficiency but for environmental progress,” says Tarakçıoğlu. “Every insight helps us make smarter, cleaner, and more responsible operational choices.”

Using AWS analytics and visualization tools such as Amazon Quick Sight, Delivery Hero can consolidate and monitor sustainability KPIs across 48 countries. This infrastructure empowers teams to identify where operations can be optimized—such as picking the right assets for better electrification rates—and supports data-driven decisions to meet long-term climate targets. The company now has near real-time energy-data tracking across Dmart operations. As a result, Dmarts using the solution reduced their utilities costs by 11–14 percent, and the company has achieved a 14 percent reduction in global Dmart electricity usage. Based on the previous annual electricity consumption of 90 GWh across 700 stores, this equates to around 10.9 GWh saved—and roughly 4,915 tons of carbon dioxide emissions avoided.

Moreover, by deploying in the AWS Cloud, store managers will see a full return on investment for the hardware within 1 year of first using the solution. “It’s a project that we’re very proud of,” says Sutton. “It’s good for sustainability, profitability, and food safety.” Impressively, stores using the solution have increased their food compliance rates by 17 percent.

To enhance the value of its IoT solution, Delivery Hero plans to deploy machine learning models to deliver predictive maintenance recommendations to its store managers by analyzing equipment performance data. “I feel superconfident that we can scale this solution globally in a short period of time,” says Tarakçıoğlu. “We can really make an impact on customer satisfaction and food safety compliance. I believe our operational savings are going to continue to grow as we scale the maintenance solution globally.”