The Midlands Co-operative, which runs 400 retail outlets, has
begun a programme to rationalise and modernise its websites as it
gears up to sell more products online.
The group, which has more than 300 registered domain names and
25 websites offering electrical goods, travel and other services,
plans to merge sites, add videos and technology to personalise the
content to individual shoppers.
It plans to expand its online electrical retail store, which has
been running as a pilot for over a year, by increasing the range of
products on offer and making it more accessible to customers.
One option is to put kiosks in Co-op stores to allow customers
who may not have internet access to order non-food items and have
them delivered either to their home or the store.
"A lot of customers still shop in stores, so we are looking at
kiosks so that a customer can look online in store and see a wider
range of electrical products," said Sarah Benfield, web services
manager at Midlands Co-operative.
The group plans to create other transactional web sites and is
considering offer groceries online. It also plans to upgrade its
travel web sites.
"Our travel division has 12 difference sites, offering tourist
holidays. We also have City Break, Disney and Cruises. The plan is
to consolidated those to strengthen the brand," she said.
The group plans to roll out an online HR service internally,
which will allow the Co-op's 8,000 staff to book holidays, complete
appraisals and check their pay slips online.
"It will have a huge impact for business. It powers managers to
book annual leave in a more efficient manner. And they won't be
pushing paper around," said Benfield.
The project will pay for itself within a year, she said.
Separately, the group plans to roll out a retail system in its
stores which will be complete by the second quarter next year.
It has virtualised 50% of the windows servers in its datacentre,
and aims to virtualise another 25% over the next two to three
years, as the hardware reaches the end of its life