The Real Canadian Superstore is now offering an online shopping option at four locations in British Columbia, Loblaw announced Thursday.
In Coquitlam, Langley, Kelowna and their Vancouver location on Grandview Highway, customers can now order online, and then pick up groceries later at the store.
“They shop from over 20,000 items, and once they place their order, we have in store personal shoppers that will collect the items for them, keeping in mind their preferences, selecting the freshest items available,” says Lauren Steinberg with Loblaw.
“And when you arrive to pick up your order, we’ll even bring it out to your car.”
The move follows Overwaitea’s decision last year to launch its own click-and-collect service at three Save-On-Foods locations in the Vancouver area, as well as delivery to “most suburban communities in the Vancouver area.”
“We had three stores to start out with, and it’s grown quite popular. We serve thousands of customers a week with it,” says Wayne Currie of the Overwaitea Food Group.
READ MORE: Online grocery shopping ‘gathering momentum in Canada’
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Online grocery sales in general in Canada comprise a minuscule proportion of all grocery sales – just a fraction of 1 per cent in 2014, according to Strategy&, a consultancy owned by PriceWaterhouseCooper.
But the amount stands to grow by a factor of 10 over the next decade.
However, companies have to convince shoppers the items they receive will be of top quality, and the infrastructure can been costly to add.
“A lot of these guys are getting into online not out of consumer demand, but of fear,” says David Ian Gray of DIG360 Consulting.
“The fear is the likes of an Amazon or maybe some other innovators are going to tap into something in a really clever way, and they’re going to be left losing share.”
– With files from Jamie Sturgeon
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