Morrisons shelves standalone wine site Morrisons Cellar

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 07 May, 2014

Supermarket Morrisons has decided to pull away from running its own standalone wine retail website and instead combine it with its new general grocery website, Morrisons.com.

The specialist wine site MorrisonsCellar.com launched ahead of the general site back in autumn 2012, and the retailer said it surpassed its expectations in the first year of trading. The total grocery site went live in January 2014.

Steve Mosey Steve MoseyMorrisons' BWS category director Steve Mosey said the supermarket is moving away from its standalone wine site in favour of having a 'one-stop shop' for consumers at Morrisons.com.

Steve Mosey, category director for beers, wines and spirits at Morrisons, told harpers.co.uk: "As we look to continually improve our online wine proposition, we have taken the decision to combine Morrisonscellar.com with our industry leading grocery site Morrisons.com which launched earlier this year. This move will take effect from June 2014 and is the logical next step to provide our customers with a one-stop shop for all of their online wine and groceries.

"Our online wine range will continue to provide great quality at key price points thanks to the tremendous strides taken by our new wine sourcing team. The Taste Test, which helps guide customers in an approachable way towards wines to suit their personal preferences, will remain core to our online wine offer."

Morrisons Cellar was designed to allow users to buy wines by the case from a range stretching from £3 to £195. From January consumers were able to buy single bottles of wine on the grocery site Morrisons.com, which is powered by Ocado.

Last October Mosey told harpers that it was "more than happy" with how the site was performing, adding that it was on budget for its first year performance. In October 2013, after one year's trading, the retailer claimed MorrisonsCellar.com had over 50,000 paying customers.

The site includes Taste Test, which encourages users to answer questions to help work out which wines best suit their palate. This feature will be retained on Morrisons.com. The retailer is also planning to use Taste Test tools in store, to make the wine aisle easier to shop.

Morrisons is releasing its Q1 results tomorrow, May 8.

Morrisons' BWS category director Steve Mosey said the supermarket is moving away from its standalone wine site in favour of having a 'one-stop shop' for consumers at Morrisons.com.

Printer friendly version