Coming soon to your doorstep — beer, wine and other booze from the LCBO.
The new Ontario budget has revealed the LCBO’s online store is set to launch mid-2016.
The site is still very much a work in progress, the retailer said.
“It’s still in the development-testing stage,” said LCBO spokeswoman Christine Bujold.
The store — or “e-commerce platform” in budget-speak — was first announced last year during the major shake-up of alcohol retailing in the province, but didn’t feature an opening date.
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According to an LCBO FAQ for suppliers, the LCBO expects some 40,000 orders within a year of the online store’s launch.
But the LCBO is expecting the to-your-doorstep delivery to be less of a hit than the in-store pickup option, with 80 per cent of orders estimated to go to existing brick-and-mortar locations.
They’ve even got a guess as to how many bottles or cans the average shopper will drop in their digital cart — 10.
The home-delivery experience will be familiar to those used to shopping in LCBO outlets — except it will be the mailperson doing the age-check.
The FAQ notes shipping will be handled by Canada Post, who will check the ID of those answering the door and “will not deliver to a suspected intoxicated person.”
Though barely a few decades away from an era when you had to fill out a form to buy a six-pack, the LCBO says it has done its homework on cyber-retailers — and has clicked through online mega-stores Amazon, Ebay and Etsy to figure out best-practices.
The full spectrum of alcohol currently sold by the government retailer – including spirits – is being considered for online sales.