Morrisons to sell pre-chilled wines in new online range

Morrisons is to deliver pre-chilled wine to consumers as part of its new online offer, as it seeks to become “more relevant” to its customers.

The new pre-chilled wines, which shoppers can choose from a pre-selected range, have been introduced on the back of consumer insight, which highlighted the importance of people buying for specific occasions, Morrisons said.

It is part of the “evolved” online offer from Morrisons, which will see the standalone Morrisons Cellar site amalgamated with Morrisons.com grocery site from 3 June.

The retailer said the move would open up the market for both channels and attract more online shoppers. “It’s a big opportunity to work with people on grocery and transfer them across to wine,” online wine buyer Laura Sheen said.

The retailer will be offering enhanced services, slashing the minimum wine order from a case of six to one bottle, and introducing one-hour delivery time slots.

However, Morrisons is cutting the number of wine SKUs offered on the new site by nearly 50%, to 500 SKUs, as part of the ‘evolution’ – and putting more emphasis on sub-£10 wines, which will now account for around 90% of the range.

Morrison’s head of wine operations Mark Jarman said the range review would enable it to provide a more “relevant” range for its customers by stripping out duplication and offering greater breadth and choice.

“We have looked at wines not selling well and had the opportunity to remodel the range at more accessible price points – and maximise the ratio of quality to price,” he said. “We have refocused wines in terms of what the consumer wants – as many online wine offers have window-dressing wines that the consumer doesn’t want.”