Majestic launches ‘Shop Local’ to give stores online autonomy

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Majestic Wine is gearing up to launch a new online shopping platform designed to give greater autonomy to its stores and local consumers.

The booze specialist has created the Shop Local service, which will effectively give each of its 200 stores its own individual website.

Customers will be able to view only the product ranges and stock levels of their nearest Majestic store before placing orders for same-day, click and collect or home delivery.

Each of Majestic’s stores across the UK has its own social media account, which will combine with Shop Local to ensure “each store is digitally in control”, boss John Colley told Retail Week.

Individual stores will be able to engage with local shoppers on their social-media channels, promote ranges that might be more localised to that store and direct them to their Shop Local website to make purchases.

The move comes as Majestic seeks to capitalise on changing shopping habits during the pandemic, which have seen consumers spend more in their local neighbourhoods at a time when travelling into larger towns and cities has been curtailed by lockdown restrictions.

The retailer plans to open another 14 stores in the coming years as private-equity owner Fortress, which bought Majestic from Naked Wines for £95m in December 2019, invests in its multichannel expansion.

Colley said: “Launching Shop Local puts us really at the front of the retail revolution. It’s a system we know many other businesses are looking to implement as soon as possible, but we’re already well on track.

“It may not seem revolutionary, but it really is. It means that customers can order directly from a store’s local range, with full visibility of their stock levels, bespoke ranges and limited parcels.

“That not only helps us to curate our offer even further to our stores, it also helps us to build VIP relationships with customers across all channels – online, in store and over the phone.

“It also gives us more control over those relationships and reduces the risk of an order potentially going wrong due to national distribution issues.

“It’s a fantastic update and further underlines our commitment to having a multichannel, nationwide store network, backed up by market-leading services and development.”