UKNM: Online grocery retail - was .com vs .co.uk

[Ray Taylor]

From: Jo Chipchase <

jocan-u-hack-it [dot] com

>


> I think the .co.uk name change strategy may confuse consumers, leading

some

> to think it's a Net business, and detracting from the stores.  For

example,

> it would confuse my non-surfing Mum... so perhaps Mum wouldn't go to

> Iceland after all.

>


Jo may well be right. But you might equally say that they are trying to get

ahead of the game by educating consumers and/or setting up store for the

future consumer.


So far, no grocery retailer has made any real inroads into online/direct

sales. Tesco looked promising for a while but still (disappointingly) very

much a token effort, Sainsbury's still on the starting block, M&S still

struggling to come to terms with the 20th Century, let alone the one that

starts in 9 months time. And they all have other more pressing worries.


Perhaps Iceland sees this as their opportunity to grab the online

highground. Who knows? Of course it will need an awful lot of investment in

customer service to match deeds with words. And Iceland's comments in

Marketing Week suggest they are happy to play third fiddle to Tesco and

Sainsbury's while minimising investment.


So all in all, despite promises of huge investment by the big two, online

grocery sales are not likely to inspire anyone, and particularly not the

customers. Unless of course the 'customers' are restricted to young singles

/ professionals who can't be bothered to go shopping (as opposed to the real

customers of grocery stores - the housewives, or whatever the PC term is for

people who control family finances these days).


The only way we are likely to get a really good online/direct grocery retail

delivery service in this country is as a startup. Orders taken by email,

web, iTV, WAP, kiosk, and the good ol'fashioned telephone and/or fax. No

delivery charge, 2-hour turnaround, 24-hour customer care, etc., etc.


Couldn't be done? sure it could. It would just take a bit of wit, effort and

money to do it.


Next time I chat to Terry Leahy I will suggest he chucks in his dead-end job

and gets out on the VC trail.


Ray Taylor



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