Loblaw brings click and collect to London

Ten months after launching click and collect at one store in suburban Toronto, Loblaw has extended the online pickup service to 16 locations in half a dozen markets in Ontario, with more on the way. The latest city is London, Ont., where click and collect started Friday at the Fanshawe Market Loblaws. A second Loblaws in London, the Wonderland Road location, is also getting the service. As in other cities, Loblaw is charging customers $3 to $5, depending on the day and time they use the service. Loblaw’s marketing director, Lauren Steinberg, told the London Free Press that click and collect is a convenient way for shoppers to order online “with the added benefit of picking up their order when it’s ready.” READ: Loblaw and Uber team up on click-and-collect offer “What we’re trying to do is offer a new way for customers with busy lifestyles to shop,” she added. The first Loblaw click-and-collect store was the Loblaws in Richmond Hill, Ont., which began offering the service last October via a drive-thru (pictured). Since then several stores in Toronto have added click and collect. Some Ontario Loblaw stores also now offer click and collect in Ottawa, Lindsay and Kingston. Loblaw is looking to expand to other markets as well. A recent recruitment post on Twitter advertised for personal shoppers for a click and collect service at a Loblaws in Collingwood, Ont. A quick perusal of the careers page on Loblaw’s website found more than a dozen job posting for click and collect department managers at Real Canadian Superstores in and around Edmonton and at stores in several B.C. cities, including Vancouver, Kelowna and Coquitlam. READ: Walmart grocery pickup coming to Ottawa In Ottawa, Loblaw faces a click-and-collect competitor in the form of Walmart, which launched its own service in July, with pickup available at 11 locations. In London, Loblaw’s e-commerce competitors include Grocery Checkout, which delivers to customers’ doors. In Vancouver, a click and collect service was launched last summer by Overwaitea Food Group at some of its Save-On-Food stores. Though it’s often believed that online grocery shoppers are mostly doing stock-up shopping for packaged goods, Loblaw has found that not to be the case. In an interview with Canadian Press in July, Loblaw’s senior vice-president of e-commerce and omni-channel, Jeremy Pee, said that one of the surprises of click and collect so far has been the demand for fresh products such as produce, deli, cheese and meat. "I think we've done a really good job on training our (food pickers) as well as educating our customers and making the assortment available,” he said.