Grocery store Iceland is planning a big online push into non-food with the launch a series of websites beginning later this month.
The first to begin trading will be a selection of freezers, white goods and kitchen appliances through an offshoot of its existing site.
The site will be run in partnership with DRL, which owns ao.com, and see Iceland resurrect its appliances business. The chain closed its previous joint-venture with Dalton House Appliances in 2009 which occupied space in 18 per cent of Iceland's UK stores.
The chain relaunched its ecommerce food delivery platform earlier this year after a six year hiatus and hopes to be delivering from 300 stores by the year end. It eventually expects to have food delivery available through its website from 550 to 600 stores as it expands its delivery business into the north of England.
'We were probably ahead of the game [when we first launched the ecommerce service in 1999] and ended up doing a lot of transactions on the telephone. Our customers didn’t typically have PCs, so we were crucifying our in-store operation taking calls throughout the day and then not having enough resource to pick the goods – so we canned it in 2005,' John Mackie, Iceland's director of delivered sales told the Essential Retail website.
The company invested just over £1 million in the initial launch to 25 stores. Mackie said the low cost was because the chain still had the skeleton operation left from its previous online foray and because they had opted for a much simpler strategy than some rivals, such as Morrisons.
He said he also plans to weave Iceland's Bonus Card offer into the online shopping experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment