With the acquisition of clothing and homewares retailer
EziBuy by supermarket Woolworths, the grocery giant is now touting itself as
Australia and New Zealand’s largest “multi-option retailer.”
Woolworths chief Grant O’Brien referred to this move into
the online retail world as providing a unique competitive advantage, off the
back of the 2011 acquisition of Cellarmasters as a direct online wine retailer.
But supermarkets have been trending to this area for a
while. While we have covered the rise of the hypermarket previously, as well as
the entrance of Aldi to the Australian marketplace, we can see this trend
continuing throughout the wider marketplace. For some time specific gift cards were available
direct from supermarkets, such as iTunes, and as of this week Woolworths (and
Big W) are also exclusively offering Google Play Gift Cards. On the other wise
of this, Coles have offered their own apparel label for sale via their
supermarkets (Mix Apparel) for quite some time.
But where will the multi-option retail space move in the
future? Where does the line between supermarket, hypermarket, and DDS begin to
blur?
Earlier this year, Aldi held a sale for medical assistance
equipment.
What it means for us: The
Australian supermarket space is an exciting area of change – the future is
uncertain for retailers, but with the constant movement and innovation that
supermarkets go through to stay abreast of current trends set them in a good
space to move into the online multi-option retail sector.
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