By James Atkinson
Dan Murphy's has introduced Click & Collect, a new service enabling shoppers to order online and pick up their drinks from their nearest store in only two hours.
After a successful trial in South Australia, the service has been expanded to cover stores in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.
New Dan Murphy's outlets are being designed to include a dedicated 'Click & Collect' zone where customers can pick up their online orders, making collection even quicker as they don't have to go through a checkout.
Click & Collect comes just 18 months after Dan Murphy's began online sales, with the retailer's web functionality also being upgraded to support orders placed via mobile devices.
Dan Murphy's general manager Martin Smith said: "Our Click & Collect service is all about making our customers' lives that little bit easier by offering multiple ways to shop – be that online, on the phone or in-store.
"We're pleased to have been able to launch Click & Collect in time for Christmas, because we know that this time of year is frantic for our customers. Our online store now provides Australians with more choice – they can purchase the spirits, wine and beer they need this festive season and choose to either pick it up from their local store or have it delivered."
To promote the new service, Dan Murphy's will be taking online orders at two popup locations in Sydney CBD this week. Shoppers can then collect their order from their local store or choose to have it delivered.
The retailer's announcement follows the release earlier this year of figures by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Frost & Sullivan showing a record 53 per cent of Australian consumers are now shopping online.
They predicted that online shopping in Australia will increase by 17.9 per cent in 2012.
On the drinks side, global consumer research agency Wine Intelligence said 16 per cent of Australian regular wine drinkers have purchased wine online in the past six months, a 4 per cent increase on 2010.