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Morrisons outlines plans for e-commerce push

Thursday, November 21, 2013 - 15:27 by David Aiken

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Supermarket chain, Morrisons is set to enter the world of shopping online early next year, with its first e-commerce service rolling out in Warwickshire and Yorkshire before going nationwide towards the end of 2014.

In this week's Daily Telegraph a number of details about its e-commerce strategy were revealed, including the intention to promote the availability of fresh produce.

People who buy their groceries via safe shopping online may not think much about the benefits of getting fresh items delivered to their door, instead focusing on longer life packaged products. But Morrisons believes that it is in a position to distinguish itself from the competition by making fresh food high on the agenda.

Morrisons is also going to be making a lot of noise about the sheer range of products and order customisation options that will be available through its online store.

Being able to get specific size cuts of meat, for example, will be seen as a major selling point, although these features will obviously have practical drawbacks that the supermarket will have to overcome if it is to satisfy customers whilst ensuring that its service runs smoothly.

Morrisons actually saw a dip in sales over the last three months, with a drop of 2.4 percent year on year. It is hoping to reverse this trend with a combination of a major advertising push ahead of Christmas and the launch of its e-commerce offering in the new year.

Of course, it probably would have been desirable to make online shopping available to its customers before Christmas, but putting a new website and infrastructure through its paces at the busiest time of year would have brought its own problems, so hopefully 2014 will be a better year for Morrison's and its e-commerce endeavours.