Tuesday, November 09, 1999
Royal Ahold, the international food retailer, is making further inroads into the area of e-commerce. A new website launched this week by Ahold's Dutch wine & liquor chain, Gall & Gall, www.gall.nl, offers a wide variety of wine and other beverages 24 hours a day for home delivery. An on-line wine auction every two weeks contributes to the operations. Ahold views e-commerce as a format that enhances the service it provides to its customers around the world.
Various Ahold supermarket chains already offer on-line services. They manage to do it in both a profitable and most satisfying way for its customers. Albert Heijn, the retailer's flagship supermarket chain in the Netherlands, has offered home delivery services to it shoppers since 1984, and this year broke even in this area. The website offered by Albert Heijn enjoys fast growing popularity and provides customers with the choice of home delivery or the change to pick up their groceries at the local store.
Disco, the supermarket chain operated by Ahold's joint venture company in Argentina, operates Disco Virtual, an elaborate Internet store that offers shoppers home delivery at their convenience. In the U.S., the supermarket chain Stop & Shop has taken the lead in making on-line services for its customers a standard part of its business. Other Ahold USA subsidiaries, including Giant Food Stores of Carlisle, PA, have also expanded their home delivery services through electronic media.
Ahold says that food stores will remain the most important food sales outlets as e-commerce will not replace traditional supermarkets with constantly increasing variety of fresh products and ready made meals. However, e-commerce will increasingly form an integral part of a complete formula for superior service.
Royal Ahold operates nearly 4,000 supermarkets in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia, with annualized sales of about USD 35 billion. The company employs approximately 300,000 associates worldwide, serving nearly 25 million customers weekly.