Source: MIL-OSI Submissions
Source: UnderTow Media
29 March 2020: As demand for online shopping continues to grow in Christchurch, Countdown is today introducing brand new technology to its Moorhouse store which will increase the availability of online shopping in the city by an additional 4,000 orders per week.
Known as Order Storage Retrieval (OSR) units, these state-of-the-art semi-automated micro-fulfilment centres can hold up to 10,000 of the most in-demand grocery products for orders, freeing up Countdown’s team of personal shoppers to focus on selecting quality fresh food and perishable products for customers. The new OSR unit at Countdown Moorhouse can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week at full capacity, along with a dedicated team.
Countdown’s General Manager Brand and CountdownX, Sally Copland, says Cantabrians’ continued love for online grocery shopping is an opportunity for Countdown to step up and expand in a city that is adopting online shopping at speed.
“Our Christchurch customers’ expectations and demand for online shopping are continuing to rise, so investing in technology to support that is more important than ever. In the last year online shopping demand across Canterbury has increased by more than 30 per cent, so we want to make sure we’re meeting this continued need.
“Countdown was at the cutting edge of innovation 25 years ago when we were the first supermarket to launch online shopping, and today we’re continuing to push ourselves to stay in front of the trends,” says Sally Copland.
“The new micro-fulfilment technology will help us pull together packaged goods in minutes, saving our personal shoppers precious time to select quality fresh food for our customers, but it will also help us take some congestion out of our supermarkets as well which we know will be appreciated by local shoppers. At the moment there are so many orders being selected amongst in-store supermarket shoppers, and ultimately we want everyone to have a positive shopping experience with us whether that’s in-store or online.
“Our expert team of personal shoppers is trained to shop as carefully as they would when shopping for their own families, and now they’ll be able to serve even more customers with that same attention to detail.
“We’ll be able to provide even faster, more convenient delivery experiences for Christchurch shoppers, and increase the availability of same-day delivery as a result, which more and more of our customers want,” says Sally Copland.
Countdown’s Moorhouse store is the first customer-facing store in New Zealand to implement this technology and was selected due to high demand for online shopping in Christchurch.
The micro-fulfilment centre is built by Boston-based Takeoff Technologies and is the second in New Zealand with a similar unit recently installed at Countdown’s dedicated eStore in Penrose, Auckland.
Countdown’s Moorhouse store will service online delivery orders from five additional Christchurch supermarkets: Countdown The Palms, Countdown Eastgate, Countdown
Colombo Street, Countdown Church Corner and Countdown Northlands, allowing the instore teams to focus on what they do best, serving customers.
Online Pick Up orders in these areas will still be fulfilled and collected from local stores.
Countdown first launched online shopping in 1996 and has continued to innovate to serve the needs of its customers however they choose to shop, whether this is through the myCountdown app, from the Countdown website or in-store.
About Countdown
Countdown is one of New Zealand’s largest employers with more than 18,000 team members across 180 supermarkets, distribution centres, processing plants and support offices. We serve around 3 million customers every week and work with thousands of food producers and suppliers throughout New Zealand. We’re committed to being part of the communities we live and work in: some of our activities include the Countdown Food Rescue which donates more than $3.5 million of food each year to The Salvation Army and other food rescue groups and foodbanks.
