eBay has extended their partnership with the 100 year old Coles Supermarket in Australia. This appears to be the first full blown online grocery business to launch with eBay aiming to attract shoppers in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to buy on eBay.
Australian eBay users can now shop from Coles’ perishable and non-perishable everyday essentials across a variety of categories including select pre-packed fresh food, pantry, personal care and household items. Shoppers who have subscribed to eBay’s membership program, eBay Plus, will enjoy free delivery on orders that are $49 and over and double the number of flybuys points on all orders.
The partnership gives shoppers access to Coles’ products alongside eBay’s unrivalled range of new and unique items, from tech to fashion. Coles joins the 40,000 Australian retailers that are already trading on eBay including Myer, The Good Guys and Target.
Currently only 3% of Australians currently choose to shop for their groceries, so eBay and Coles really are breaking ground in the online grocery business down under… and none too soon before Amazon gain domination in Australia. Coles on eBay will offer one simple unattended delivery option that will enable customers to have their order dropped off even if no-one is home. Further delivery options will be provided throughout the year.
“We are always looking for ways to make life easier for our customers. “By partnering with eBay, we are providing our customers another convenient way to access our products and have them delivered straight to their door.”
– Alister Jordan, Chief Executive, Coles Online
Having launched officially less than two weeks ago on the 6th of March, it’s already becoming apparent that eBay shoppers have no mercy with broken promises. Coles feedback reveals that a messed up order can result in dozens of negative feedback – one for each product that was in the order. It’s perhaps unfair to look at their feedback in quite the same way as other sellers – we’ve seen one buyer leave 18 negatives for a single transaction but combined with other messed up orders it has reduced Coles feedback percentage to 86.2% which would see most sellers kicked off eBay.
It shouldn’t really comes as a surprise that eBay has chosen Australia to launch their online grocery business. Amazon landing in Australia a year ago where previously eBay had ruled the roost as the defacto Australian marketplace. In order to compete with Amazon eBay needs a step change and to stop being just a general marketplace and add in a host of service and benefits – not just an online grocery business but also delivery promises that meet today’s retail standards and inveigle themselves into every day life which Amazon have done with Prime, video, Kindle, online groceries and a host of other benefits.
One Response
Online grocery business is BIG business and cannot be done half cocked.(which you could imagine with a company like ebay
Zero chance of ebay UK being able to get into this business however.
The Big supermarkets have however built an impressive logistics network around the UK (not something you see covered on tamebay for some reason it is e-commerce) , not just delivering from supermarkets but actual dedicated fulfillment hubs.
For once someone has actually stole the march on Amazon. As well as that guaranteed weekly shop they are also delivering “General merchandise”. Our local Sainsburys is going from 9 vans to over 25 it is 24 hour operation and a lot goes in to it.
Along with all the others supermarkets it is all you see out there these days on the road are these vans.
We get our own shopping delivered every week online, better value (not buying stupid things), time saving also, and we have been buying GENERAL merchandise on top of the bread and milk.
It is also (I know this never means a thing in get rich quick UK), very environmentally friendly, your better having one van deliver to 15 houses than 15 cars drive to a supermarket.
Australian seems to be about the only market eBay have left however where they are no 1 and the one they are prepared to innovate with and try and evolve.