Woolworths' ground-breaking new service that delivers groceries in under two hours
Woolworths is rolling out a delivery service that will allow shoppers to receive their groceries within two hours.
Initially only available in Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sydney, Woolies customers in Hobart, Adelaide and Perth will now be able to access Delivery Now.
Delivery Now lets customers order their groceries online and have them delivered. Groceries can be tracked on a smartphone with an estimated delivery time.
Woolies claims the average time it takes is 62 minutes. Orders can be placed from Monday to Friday between 9am-7pm, Saturday 9am-3pm, and Sunday 11am-3pm with a flat delivery fee of $19.
Annette Karantoni, Woolworths director of eCommerce, said in a statement the supermarket wants to give shoppers “new ways to reclaim time in their increasingly busy lives”.
“It’s ideal for top up shops of everyday essentials, or more urgent needs like snacks for catering at short notice, nappies, or cold and flu medicine,” she said.
You can check if Delivery Now is available for you via Woolies’ website.
‘It shows good growth’
Retail expert Professor Gary Mortimer from Queensland University of Technology told Yahoo News Australia the service is a “great idea”.
“I guess this express delivery is removing the pain point off waiting for the next day to get your groceries,” he said.
“Unlike online shopping for a pair of shoes or t-shirt where we're normally willing to wait a day or two to get the delivery food and groceries is more of a habitual purchase decision. Sometimes we don’t know what we want when we walk into the supermarket and the same thing applies online.”
Professor Mortimer added it fixes “the pain” of waiting for groceries to be delivered too, which in the past could take up to 24 hours.
“If we think about how online food and grocery works now certainly growing - both Coles and Woolworths indicated its online channels had grown 30 per cent,” he said.
“It shows good growth both are now working towards putting infrastructure in to support food and grocery growth.”
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He said the stores selected to take on fast delivery services were those closer to the CBD areas where there are “medium density living arrangements”, allowing supermarkets to tap into “busy young professionals” and “time poor parents”.
Professor Mortimer added it’s not just “tech-savvy” people using these types of services either, with growth seen within the elderly population.
“They can’t get out of their homes in some cases and have less mobility and being able to tap out a couple of items and have them delivered to the kitchen bench is great for elderly consumers,” he said.
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