Coles will no longer deliver catalogues, opting for new digital experience
Coles will no longer deliver catalogues to mailboxes and will only stock a small number of catalogues in store as it looks to follow changing consumer habits and become more sustainable.
As a replacement, the business is rolling out a new digital experience, Coles&co, to offer consumers the weekly specials alongside exclusive content.
Coles Group CEO Steven Cain said the demand for digital catalogues has significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and that consumers have adapted their habits past the need for printed catalogues.
“With COVID-19, we’ve really seen a shift to online shopping in the last few months, as lots of our customers try our contactless home delivery and Click&Collect services for the first time. We’ve also seen an increase of more than 50% in readership for our digital catalogue since
March,” said Cain.
“We are living at a time of unprecedented societal change, including a surge in the diversity of consumer tastes and dietary needs. As customers add more fresh food to their diet they’re shopping more often, and their appetite for immediacy and digital information means a weekly, one-size-fits-all, catalogue in their letterbox is no longer as relevant for them as it once was.”
The new Coles&co offering will be ‘more personalised’ said Cain and could in the future include daily content tailored to consumers.
“We will be investing more in digital content and capability for customers and suppliers, as well as better value by lowering the cost of breakfast, lunch and dinner, and improving our sustainability by reducing our reliance on paper.”
Coles&co will feature ‘shoppable’ specials, allowing customers to do their shopping right from the screen, and new content from Coles chefs, including Curtis Stone, and other contributors.
The new digital offering will roll out from Thursday. Catalogues will cease as of September 9.
“Since 2000 we have delivered around 200 billion pages of weekly catalogues to letterboxes across Australia,” Cain said.
Pointing again to sustainability, Cain said ceasing the catalogues will save 10,000 tonnes of paper annually.
“We’re committed to being Australia’s most sustainable supermarket and reducing our reliance on paper by prioritising digital channels like Coles&co is a significant step towards that goal,” Cain said.
Catalogues had already been suspended during the first weeks of the pandemic, due to the waves of product demand that saw many supermarkets without basic items for weeks.
And the job losses that come off the back of this while they dance in the cash from the higher sales they are seeing??
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I prefer to read a catalogue. I will go to Woolworths from now on. I hate reading an catalogues, books and newspapers online. I know many people who don’t own a computer. You are not reaching these people.
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Sustainability? Saving 10,000 tonnes of paper per year? Confusing Coles….those trees came from sustainable forests without a catalogue would those tress have been planted in the first place???? Paper/Wood Fiber is one of the most sustainable products we have…leave it in the garden and it will have disappeared after the first bit of rain…Australia’s most sustainable supermarket…not by burdening the world with your little red shop figurines which will still be around in year 9020
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Looks like you’re a catalogue distributor according to LinkedIn, Dierdre. So would it be fair to say you have a vested interest in keeping old world practices alive?
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There is only an increase in online demand because of this pandemic! This doesn’t mean that everyone is able to be online and also that everyone will prefer it over a catalogue that you can browse through anytime at your leisure!! Coles had cut alot of their catalogues since there was so much panic buying, they didn’t need to advertise at all. When there is no other option but to go online then obviously people are going to use that avenue. If this is what they THINK is the way to go then they will lose me as a customer for sure. Printied catalogues is a very sustainable industry with all paper being sourced from renewable forests from all over the world and all can be easily recycled. Too early Coles
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Yet the irony of you commenting on a media site via a digital device is not lost…. Dear catalogue provider…tell me more about your innovative solutions.
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Great idea kudos to Coles for this initiative. Just think we’ll be saving lot’s of tree’s from being chopped down & mailboxes won’t get clogged up with junk mail love it, Thumbs up!!
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Peter dont believe trees are getting saved, in a sustainable forest the whole point is to grow, cut and grow again….its more likely these 80,000 trees wont be grown…would you prefer the land be used for cattle grazing rather than a working forest
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Is this the same Deirdre Hipperson who is a Contract Distributor for advertising materials, samples and newspapers? Makes sense now why you’re not happy and will only go to Woolworths from now on…
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Too early? It’s 2020, Andrew. If anything, about bloody time Coles! Read the latest article: https://mumbrella.com.au/the-coles-catalogue-debate-is-a-reminder-adland-needs-a-greenwashing-education-638689
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Yes. I have a vested interest in keeping catalogues alive for two reasons. I have nothing to do with the distribution of the Coles catalogues so I am not losing any income because of the demise of their catalogue. I employ 50 people to deliver other types of catalogues into letterboxes each week. If one company starts to withdraw catalogues from distribution it could flow on to other companies also doing the same thing then I will lose my income and so will the 50 people who work for me. I have been in the industry for 31 years. I prefer to read anything on paper instead of online. It feels comforting and good to turn a page of a catalogue or a book. So I will support any company who distributes catalogues into my letterbox. You must be young to refer to catalogues delivery as being Old World. You make it sound like something out of the 18th century. It is a current practice. Not Old World.
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I made a simple comment. I am not here to reinvent the wheel with innovative solutions. I am not seeking a solution. I like paper catalogues coming into my letterbox. It is my preference. I don’t want to read catalogues on a computer.
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