Majestic launches Naked ‘click & collect’ service

Majestic Wine is rolling out a Naked Wines’ click and collect service in all of its stores, cutting delivery costs for both the company and its 150,000 “Angels”.

The new CEO of Majestic Wine, Rowan Gormley, in Majestic’s Mayfair store

Majestic bought the online retailer Naked Wines for £70 million in April and appointed its founder Rowan Gormley as its new CEO.

The merchant has been trialling a click and collect service for Naked Wines’ customers in 22 stores across the UK. Following a “strong take-up” from customers, Majestic has announced that the service will now be rolled out to all 213 Majestic stores.

The move is in line with the company’s strategy to to share the “complementary strengths of both businesses” – Naked Wines’ e-commerce skills and Majestic’s distribution network.

Speaking to the drinks business following its sale Tim Wilson, from the Wilson Drinks Report, said a major challenge for Naked Wines, and other online-only retailers, had been the cost of delivering its wines, predicting that due to such high delivery costs the company would “want to push some of their business through click-and-collect using Majestic stores”.

The click and collect service will allow Naked Wines’ customers to collect their wine in store at no extra charge, cutting delivery costs for Naked Wines, and inevitably bringing more potential customers in store.

“Access to a national store network was one of the clear benefits for Naked Wines following the acquisition by Majestic, and it is great that we’ve been able to launch this service to Naked Wines’ customers so quickly”, said Rowan Gormley, Majestic CEO.

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“It is obvious to me that both businesses have much to offer one another and we are working on optimising even more of the complementary strengths between the two.”

Naked Wines’ stock will remain separate from Majestic’s, so wines that have been crowdfunded by Naked Wines “Angels” will still be exclusively available to them.

Eamon Fitzgerald, Naked Wines’ UK managing director added: “Our Angel customers invest in our wines up-front, and deserve to receive their wines when it suits them. We’ve seen a strong take-up from customers – particularly for those living in city centres and work full time. We have been looking for a solution for some time, and Majestic’s national footprint and logistics expertise are ideal.”

For more on the UK retail market and the cost of logistics for online merchants see the coming August issue of db.