Walmart to sell groceries on website

Retailer launches online orders, in-store pickup in Ottawa area

Walmart Canada is entering the online grocery business, the latest retailer to join an increasingly crowded field.

Starting in the Ottawa area on Tuesday, the retail giant says customers will be able to place grocery orders online for pickup in selected stores for a fee of $3. If demand warrants, the offering will be rolled out to other cities, the company said Friday.

“We want to make it easy for customers to order their groceries at home, work or while waiting at the doctor’s office so they can enjoy our unbeatable prices while saving a ton of time,” Simon Rodrigue, senior vice-president of eCommerce for Walmart Canada, said in a statement.

Walmart is joining a growing number of retailers offering similar online grocery shopping services.

Loblaw launched “Click and Collect” at three stores in the Toronto area in October 2014, and added an Ottawa store last month. Like Walmart, the service allows customers to place orders online for pickup in store.

But the real competitor is Amazon, says Doug Stephens, founder of Retail Prophet.

“Everyone is gearing up for the fact Amazon Fresh is coming to town soon,” Stephens said, referring to a subsidiary of Amazon.com that provides same-day delivery of fresh food and more to customers. “Walmart views them as a competitor.”

Amazon Canada currently offers a selection of dried goods — everything from baby formula to canned soups for delivery.

Amazon Fresh is available only in a limited number of U.S. markets.

“We want to make it easy for customers to order their groceries at home, work or while waiting at the doctor’s office.”

SIMON RODRIGUE

WALMART CANADA VICE-PRESIDENT OF ECOMMERCE

While online sales of fresh food represent a very small percentage of overall e-commerce sales in Canada, Stephens says he believes they will catch on.

Just as people thought they’d never buy shoes or suits online, Stephens says he believes the resistance to having someone else shop for food for you is waning.

“I agree people like to ensure the apples are crisp and the meat looks fresh,” he says.

But he says there’s also a lot more information available online to allow customers to make informed shopping decisions.

Consumers, particularly young families and aging baby boomers, like the convenience of shopping online, he added.

Grocery Gateway pioneered the business in the late 1990s. The company, now owned by Longo Brothers Fruit Market, is focused on the Greater Toronto Area.

Grocery Gateway employs 100 personal shoppers who shop a 50,000square-foot facility north of Toronto and delivers the orders to the customer’s door for a fee of $9.99.

The difference with Walmart and Loblaw is the customer picks up their order at a store. The service costs less as a result.

Walmart said customers will pay a $3 fee to place their orders through its website. The orders must be a minimum of $50 and placed at least one day ahead of pickup.

In comparison, Loblaw is charging $3 to $5 depending on the scheduled pickup time.

The service is starting in Ottawa because it has been a strong market for e-commerce, Rodrigue said.

“The other thing is Ottawa gives us a great cross-section of Canada,” Rodrigue told The Canadian Press in a phone interview Friday.

“We see a strong education seg- ment with two universities, a hightech sector and, demographically, there’s a lot of young families here.”

The service offers most grocery items, including frozen foods, produce, meat and fish, dry goods, personal care and household cleaning products.

It excludes over-the-counter and prescription drugs and non-grocery items, such as clothing.

With nearly 400 stores across Canada, Walmart has been offering a pickup service for non-perishable goods at about 55 locations, mostly in the Toronto area.

Rodrigue says Walmart is also drawing on years of experience at its U.K. subsidiary Asda Stores.

“We’ve brought to Canada a lot of that expertise,” Rodrigue said.

“Over the last few weeks, we’ve taken a group of high-potential associates and made them dedicated pickers. Almost a personal shopper. And they’ve been trained in how to pick that perfect avocado, the type of meat you’d look for.”

The customer also has an opportunity to review the products when they’re taken to the vehicle so “we’ll be able to deliver on that customer expectation every time,” he added. With files from Star wire services