One of the big steps came last August when a group of key Irish retailers came together, to set up Buy4Now, providing Internet shopping from such leading retailers as Arnotts, Atlantic Homecare, Easons, Eircom shops, Louis Copeland tailors, Molly Blooms, Superquinn and Tusa. Such companies as Eircom were also heavily involved. By October, Superquinn was able to claim that it was the first supermarket group in Ireland to launch Internet shopping for its customers. Eamonn Quinn, marketing director of Superquinn, says that by now, they are covering around 80 per cent of Dublin and into parts of counties Kildare, Meath and Wicklow. He says that numbers are growing week by week, with people buying the full basket, including wines, online and not just cherry picking.
Customers can use an offline CD to make up their order, then go online for the actual transaction.
About half of Superquinn's online sales are done this way. It's engaged in a carefully phased rollout. Initially, the service was available in south Dublin and in Cork city, but now it's been extended to Dublin's northside, as well as the city's hinterland. The service has also been extended in Cork and it's now available in and around Galway. Other forms of retailing have also benefited from going online, including wine.