Morrisons unveils low cost online grocery service

[dutchman]

Supermarket giant Morrisons has announced that it will be offering online shoppers home delivery for just £1.



It will start to introduce its new online delivery service to customers in Warwickshire from January and eventually reach London by the summer.

Currently, the cheapest fees to bring your bought goods to your doorstep are from Sainsbury's and Asda, at £2.99 and £3 respectively, but this will slash the cost to just a third with the aim to be more competitive. Ocado offers free delivery on orders over £50.

Revealing the plans in east London yesterday (November 21st), chief executive Dalton Philips did admit that his business had been slow to embrace the online platform. He said: “We are late, but we’re not too late. The challenge we have set ourselves is to create something that’s genuinely different and that’s worth the wait.”

Mr Philips believes that by using Ocado, who Morrisons agreed to be their partner in the online business in a £216 million deal, and who have 12 years experience in the online grocery business, the oartnership will be successful and in profit within four years.

The firm will be offering its money-back guarantee, fresh food and texts to say that the driver is on their way, but a new feature will be a virtual Market Street, with a cyber fishmonger and butcher who will cut the meat and fish to order.

Furthermore, customers will enjoy colour-coded bags, with green for frozen goods and red for the fridge, to make it easier for them to put their shopping away once it arrives.

Finally, drivers will actually wait until the customer has checked their food and given the thumbs up before leaving.

Other innovative features of the new service include customers being able to import their favourite product lists from other online supermarkets

Morrisons predicts that the service will be rolled out to around one million households a month in 2014, and half of the UK will be able to order online by the end of next year. Mr

Philips concluded that the site should be in profit by 2017.

The online Morisons.com plaftorm does not launch until January 10th in Warwickshire.