Woolworths Marketplace: Expanding Product Range With A Curated Multi-Seller Solution
Over the last few years, online orders and home delivery services grew rapidly across Australia. This trend was accelerated in the wake of COVID-19, with Woolworths at the forefront of this changing customer behaviour.
With an increasing number of people becoming comfortable with purchasing their groceries online and finding the Woolworths online experience convenient, easy and efficient, Woolworths saw an opportunity to extend its range with complementary products by partnering with various 1st party and 3rd party sellers.
new products now available
shoppers are new to Woolworths offering
Launching Woolworths Marketplace
The Multi-Vendor Storefront Opportunity
- Delivery Diversity: Through the Everyday Market, Woolworths were no longer limited by their own branded trucks and instead gained additional fulfilment options for third-party products, communicated clearly to customers.
- Enhanced Product Access: Everyday Market was no longer limited to product availability by fulfilment option and location; the Everyday Market proposition delivered all products, making these differences clear via the platform.
- Harmonised Experience: Unifying backend systems for seamless pricing and promotions offered a shopping experience similar to Woolworths’s existing eCommerce platform.
- Empowered Customer Communication: Collaborative efforts enabled real-time order updates for both 1st and 3rd party products.
- Innovative Integration: Legacy system variations were converted to establish an easy integration process that met the needs of both sellers and customers.
The Marketplacer solution
After identifying an increasing demand for online shopping, the Everyday Market team set out to create a new marketplace that could feature additional products customers would value.
After carefully evaluating a range of options, a decision was made to build the new offering on the Marketplacer platform for reasons including:
- An Australian-based company considered world-class in its technical capability, team makeup, and leadership.
- Deep understanding of existing Woolworths systems and how best to integrate into them.
- Detailed implementation planning with a dedicated team to meet timelines and needs.
- A well-networked Australian retail and eCommerce ecosystem with the ability to leverage local and global best-in-class approaches.
Results
Since going live in September 2021, Everyday Market steadily grew in terms of revenues, new SKUs, and sellers joining the platform each month.
- Over 40 sellers were added in the first six months since launch. Expansion into new categories and products continued accelerating for the next 12 months.
- Grocery-adjacent categories such as toys, homewares and electronics outperformed expectations, with customers appreciating the ability to shop multiple categories alongside their groceries.
- Over 20% of Everyday Market shoppers were new to the Woolworths eCommerce offering.
- Customers shopping both Everyday Market and Woolworths eCom items had a higher combined AOV than those who shopped only one category of product.
