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Iceland returning to e-commerce in 2013

Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - 09:29 by Graham Miller

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It looks like frozen food retailer Iceland will be getting back into the market of safe shopping online, after what will be nearly eight years out of the saddle, according a report in The Grocer.

Interestingly, it was back in 1999 when Iceland first began offering e-commerce services and deliveries for its customers, making it one of the first major retailers in the UK to take this route.

However, this all came to an end in 2005, as a result of bosses feeling that there just was not enough profit in the delivery market to make it worthwhile for the company to pursue any longer.

Now Iceland CEO, Malcolm Walker, has announced that there has been a significant increase in demand for safe shopping online from the retailer, which is why it will be trialling its new e-commerce platform in early 2013, ahead of a wider national rollout.

Mr Walker pointed to the fact that in the early days of e-commerce when Iceland was operating, not many of its customers had a home PC, let alone broadband internet access.

This has all changed and now nearly everyone is able to get online at high speeds on a number of different devices.

Iceland already has a home delivery network in place, but this only operates when customers place orders at their local store, with 175,000 people serviced in this manner each week.

Hopefully, its re-entry into the e-commerce market will not only come with a desktop website but also with an m-commerce presence, since smartphones and tablets have risen to prominence in the years since 2005.

There is definitely room for Iceland in the online groceries market, although it will have to face competition from e-commerce newcomer, Morrisons, which will also be entering the fray in the near future.