London, November 27, 2001 (ResearchWire) – UK supermarket chain Safeway has abandoned its online food and drink site. The trial service allowed customers to order groceries over the Internet and collect them later from their nearest store.

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While online sales of food and drinks are growing strongly, expected to reach $9.17 billion in the UK alone in 2005, rivals such as Tesco already have a strong foothold in the market. It would take a lot of effort to make the venture a success and, without the necessary level of commitment, Safeway might be right to focus purely on its core offline business.



Source: Datamonitor, 2001: “Exploiting eFMCG Opportunities”


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