Iceland revives e-commerce delivery service

Tuesday, May 7, 2013 - 15:04 by Graham Miller

Eight years ago the frozen foods giant Iceland decided to axe its online shopping platform, which meant customers could no longer place orders for products to be delivered to their homes via the web.

However, at the end of last month it began operating a trial of a new e-commerce service, out of just 25 stores across the UK, according to The Grocer.

Although this is a relatively small scale trial at the moment, Iceland intends to roll out safe shopping online to at least half of its UK outlets by the end of 2013.

Further down the line, it proposes to implement 85 per cent coverage by April of next year. Given that there are 779 Iceland outlets in Britain, this is a not insignificant network to re-establish.

The final 15 per cent of Iceland's shops are not likely to get e-commerce delivery as an option because of their location.

In order to be eligible for a delivery, it will be necessary for customers to buy at least 25 worth of goods from the e-commerce site.

Those using safe shopping online will not be able to access a click and collect feature in the short term, although Iceland may introduce one after the first 12 months.

Spokesperson, John Mackie, said that there is already an infrastructure in place to allow Iceland to offer home deliveries, so adding on an e-commerce interface, was a natural progression.

More jobs will also be created by this move because Iceland will need to hire staff who can prepare orders outside of store opening hours.

Hopefully, with the customer feedback that Iceland receives from the small scale trial which is taking place at the moment, it will be able to create a comprehensively solid platform for nationwide online shopping.