Coles Myer buys online heavyweight Shopfast - News - Business

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Coles Myer buys online heavyweight Shopfast

By James Pearce, ZDNet Australia
May 20, 2003
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Coles-Myer-buys-online-heavyweight-Shopfast/0,139023166,120274663,00.htm

Coles Myer has bought its competitor Shopfast, combining the two largest online grocery stores in Australia.

The two sites, Coles Online and Shopfast, will initially continue to operate as separate brands but the distribution will be integrated using the Australia Post fulfilment centre.

Hitwise ranked Coles Online as the top Australian online grocery store in April, followed by Shopfast. The combined marketshare is around 30 percent.

Coles Myer spokesperson Sarah McNeil told ZDNet Australia Shopfast customers won't notice any difference in the site. Because the two companies will continue to act as separate entities the back end IT systems will not see a lot of integration.

"The initial IT integration will be minimal," said McNeil, pointing out that Coles Myer acquired the customer database and operating software system, among other things. "There will be some integration and we'll work through that."

The majority of products sold on Shopfast will now be sourced through Coles Myer stores, but some products unique to the site will continue to be sourced from the current suppliers, according to McNeil.

Shopfast (review) was begun as a private company in October 1998 and recently took its one-millionth order.

According to Internet traffic analyst Red Sheriff, Coles Online has more unique visitors than Shopfast in April, at 167,000 compared to 77,300. However, the Shopfast visitors clocked up over a million page impressions while those visiting Coles Online only saw 386,000. Additionally, Shopfast customers spent almost three times as long on the Web site as Coles Online customers -- indicating a greater interest in the service.