Coles Online is an online retail site worked by
Coles Supermarkets
Coles Supermarkets Australia Pty Ltd, trading as Coles, is an Australian supermarket, retail and consumer services chain, headquartered in Melbourne as part of the Coles Group.
Founded in 1914 in Collingwood by George Coles, Coles operates ...
. The administration offers a wide scope of ordinary basic food item items for buy by means of the web and resulting home conveyance or "Click and Collect" areas. The administration is accessible to over 85% of the Australian populace.
History and development
Coles Online first accepted orders in 1999, delivering to selected areas in
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
and
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
although the business model was unprofitable. During the 1999–2000 financial year, the business was reported to be losing 5.6% of sales revenue.
To acquire greater market share and reverse losses, Coles Online purchased Sydney based internet grocery store Shopfast in 2003.
[Shopfast acquisition bulks up Coles Online. - Australasian Business Intelligence , HighBeam Research](_blank)
/ref> Although unprofitable, at the time Shopfast was the largest online grocer in Australia.
During this period, all orders placed by customers were filled in dedicated warehouses and it was not until 2007 when Coles Online, influenced by UK executives recruited to the company, moved to a store-based order fulfilment model.
In July 2008, to complement the new picking processes, Coles Online launched a new website[User Notice](_blank)
/ref> with a view to making Internet shopping faster and easier for customers, as well as adding many new features already standard for other online grocery stores, but at that time still absent from the Coles site.
With the new website and order fulfilment model in place, Coles Online undertook an aggressive expansion program to extend delivery areas beyond Melbourne and Sydney, the only two cities included in the online program since 1999. In October 2008, the delivery area was extended to Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
and Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
, as well as Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...
and The Gold Coast, with the Sunshine Coast added in February 2009. By October 2009, Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
was the top retail market for Coles Online in Australia, surpassing the New South Wales and Victoria regions that had been in operation for 10 years.
In April 2009, Coles Online began deliveries to Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
for the first time,
and in June of the same year became the first major grocery retailer to introduce online shopping to Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
.
Coles Online also began deliveries to Hamilton Island in mid 2009[Holiday Accommodation - Hamilton Island - Links](_blank)
/ref> and ceased them in 2016.
Coles relaunched its web site in 2013. This significantly improved the functionality of the site by including features such as comparison. The checkout process was also simplified with the ability to build a basket from a shopping list. Filtering of products by attributes was introduced and the product information enhanced through a contract with SKUvantage. In August 2017, Coles partnered with Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...
to provide home deliveries.
In March 2020, Coles began rolling out an online priority service to service elderly and vulnerable customers who cannot access groceries as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
.
Technology
In November 2015, Coles launched its new "Pick and Pack" System branded "RoverRUSH". It uses the supermarkets shelf layouts to tell Shoppers exactly where the item is located and takes the shopper the most efficient way possible. Before RoverRUSH, shoppers were given sheets of paper to tick off the shopping, this process took longer and was less efficient. All Coles Online Supermarkets were converted to this system and Rover was sold to US Software & Hardware Company NCR.
See also
* List of online grocers
This is a list of notable online grocers. Online grocers are grocery stores that allow private individuals and businesses to purchase groceries and grocery products online. The companies then deliver the orders to consumers.
Online grocers
...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Official website
{{Wesfarmers
Online retailers of Australia
Retail companies established in 1999
Internet properties established in 1999
Online grocers
Coles Group
1999 establishments in Australia