First glimpse of New World online shopping

Supermarket chain Foodstuffs North Island has launched an online shopping application, initially for New World Mt Roskill, enabling customers to have their orders home delivered at prescribed times or to pick them up from the store via an outdoor click-and-collect locker system.

More than 20 years after rival Countdown launched its digital offering, Chris Quin, Foodstuffs North Island chief executive, said the new I shop New World app was now available to download and use but initially only at the one store.

Customers wanting home deliveries would get a two-hour time frame in which to receive the goods directly, or can drive to the May Rd store and pick them up from a new secure pin-code entry bank of 10 exterior lockers facing the car park, with special dedicated parking bays, Quin said.

That was designed specially for people who did not want to get children out of their vehicles, he said.

Store owner Aaron Scanes said his area included Mt Eden, Sandringham, New Lynn, Blockhouse Bay and Mt Roskill and he welcomed the scheme, saying it offered customers a new level of choice and convenience.

Of Foodstuffs’ timing compared to rival Countdown, Quin said: “It’s very clear we’re behind them when we’re launching but we think what we’re launching is right for now.”

New World Eastridge is next online, then five more stores.

Sally Copland, Countdown’s head of online, said that business had offered the service for more than 20 years and had same-day shopping, either delivered to home or picked up from 184 stores nationally.

“We pushed the boundaries in 1996 with 100 people shopping online using a floppy disk. Today Countdown is the largest online retailer in New Zealand, fulfilling thousands of orders each day for more than 100,000 Kiwis who regularly choose us to pick, pack and deliver fresh, quality products to their homes,” Copland said.

Prices are the same in-store as online, she said.

[“Source-nzherald”]