Nordic delivery company PostNord is working with Smart Home startup Glue and ICA, Sweden’s largest grocery chain to test a system where online customers can have their food delivered directly to their fridges at home.

PostNord released a statement explaining how the system will work: “With a Glue Smart Lock, the door to your home can be unlocked using a smart phone and you can hand out digital keys to family, friends or trusted companies.

“This way, the driver from the delivery company PostNord, who in advance has received the customer’s approval and digital key, can access their home and unpack the groceries from ICA.

“The customer does not have to adjust his or her schedule according to delivery times and the groceries are already unpacked when he or she gets home.”

The three companies launched the pilot in Sweden this week. They claim that it is a world first and unlike other claims by other companies (notably Domino’s Pizza’s delivery robot) this is likely to be a world first.

Anders Svensson, CEO of ICA Sverige, said that aim of the project was to “explore the future of grocery shopping online and push the development forward”.

Carl Johan Grandinson, CEO Glue, added: “Not only does this partnership take delivery services to the next level, it ‘unlocks’ the force of the on-demand economy and encourages people to think differently when it comes to opening up their homes for services that make everyday life easier.”

Such deliveries to the fridge are a useful next step for food deliveries. Already the issue of delivering cold and frozen goods to customers is being tackled by some companies yet this may well be the simplest and cheapest option for everyone involved and will get round the expensive and cumbersome idea of insulated packaging.