Sunday, 5 May 2013

Food Store Iceland Tests Online

Frozen food chain Iceland has launched an online delivery service trial to be available at 25 stores from this week. 

It began last month in two stores and the system will be tested before being extended to as many as 650 stores.

The value retailer has more than 800 stores and already offers a delivery service for shoppers who do not want, or are unable, to carry their bags home with them.

The existing service was launched in 1997 and is free for orders over £25 and makes around 180,000 deliveries a week. The lower socio-demographic of many Iceland customers means they do not have a car and the delivery service is seen as an alternative is carrying bags home on the bus.

The initial online test has already exceeded expectations, the company said. Because some stores are larger than others the selection available to customers is tailored to the product range at individual outlets. 

The delivery service was originally extended to telephone and online shopping in 1999. But the online service was small and was later scrapped during a financial and operational reorganisation of the of Iceland business when founder Malcolm Walker returned in 2005. It was held back in part because so many of its shoppers did not have access to a computer and the launch was before the era of broadband internet provision. 

The existing delivery business serves 791 stores and uses 1,300 vans. The chain has also signed a five-year deal with Mercedes-Benz to replace its entire fleet of vans.

Iceland chairman and chief executive Malcolm Walker said: 'It was not a priority when I was faced with the challenge of turning around a near bankrupt company on my return to the business in 2005. Now the time is right to re-launch the service, building on our well-established and smoothly running home delivery infrastructure with an easy-to-use website that sets new standards for customer friendliness.'

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