Woolworths and eBay sign click-and-collect partnership

IN THE battle for your dollars, the supermarkets are rolling out all kinds of new services to capture your loyalty. What’s Woolworths’ latest play?

WOOLWORTHS wants to be the solution to your online package delivery woes.

Perhaps you’re one of those people who aren’t allowed to have parcels sent to your office. Or you live somewhere where the postie can’t safely leave the package without a stranger pilfering your shiny, new goods.

That’s exactly what Woolies is hoping to bank on in a partnership announced with eBay this morning. The supermarket giant and the eCommerce retail platform has teamed up so that you can have your online shopping delivered to Woolies so you can pick it up at your convenience.

But before you jump up and down with uncontrollable joy, the service is currently limited to six retailers — Your Home Depot, No Frills, Surf Stitch, Mytopia, Futu Online and Golfbox. Woolies and eBay said it will expand to 250 sellers within the next couple of months.

So you won’t be able to send all of your shopping to Woolies, only sellers that participate in this program.

The idea, according to the two partners, is that since 91 per cent of Australians live within 10km of a Woolies outlet, it’s a convenient collection point. But for now, the service is only available across 90 Woolies or Big W stores in NSW and Tasmania.

Woolies will be hoping to cash in on increased visits to its stores, because if you’re already in the supermarket anyway, you’ll probably throw a few things into a basket at the same time.

Emily Amos, general manager Woolworths Marketplace, said in a statement: “Woolworths is Australia’s largest domestic retailer and we know our customers are busier than ever and are looking for greater convenience and ease in everything they do. This new service will help them make best use of their time by removing the need to wait at home for a parcel to arrive.”

eBay is hoping to emulate its partnership in the UK with retailer Argos.

Click-and-collect services have popped up around Australia in the past few years. Australia Post offers a service to customers which places their packages in a locker which can be accessed at any time with a code while The Iconic trialled a service within local shopping centres.

Third-party services have also established themselves in local shopping centres.