Morrisons prepares for e-commerce launch

10 September 2012 - 12:21

Supermarket chain, Morrisons, will soon be taking its first steps into the e-commerce market, as it gets ready to sell groceries via safe shopping online.

This is a facility which most of its major rivals have offered for some years, but until recently, Morrisons has been focusing on its bricks and mortar retail empire.

Although Morrisons will be pushing ahead with its online plans, it looks like it is actually having to scale back its real world expansion, as it announced this month that it will be opening new stores at a slower rate than was initially planned, according to This Is Money.

Interestingly, the first e-commerce area that Morrisons is entering involves alcohol, as it will be selling wine online via the Morrisons Cellar service.

Customers will be able to browse a large selection of carefully selected tipples and even purchase them through safe shopping online.

While Morrisons has of course had its own web presence, until this autumn it has not actually offered customers the chance to directly buy goods for delivery via their computers.

Morrisons has not committed to a launch date for its wine service, although a spokesperson has said that it will be made available within the next two months, which means it should be live in time for the Christmas rush.

While Morrisons may be selling wine before anything else, it is actually harnessing the team and technology behind e-commerce firm, Kiddicare, to facilitate this, as it purchased the company recently to help it move into the online marketplace.

Many are watching tentatively to see precisely what impact Morrisons will have on the online grocery market when it enters the fray. While it might take market share from its rivals, it is more likely that it will simply help to increase the number of consumers who are buying their weekly shop online, rather than in-store.