Thirty years ago, 100 Aucklanders signed up to try a new way of doing the weekly shop. It was July 1996, and dial-up internet meant loading a single grocery item online could take 30 to 45 seconds.
As a workaround, Woolworths mailed pioneer Kiwi customers more than a dozen floppy disks with its grocery catalogue, letting them browse and compile orders offline before syncing pricing and stock with a central online server.
Once an order was placed, it was faxed through to the Manurewa store in Auckland, where two specially trained personal shoppers picked and packed the groceries before sending them out for delivery.
It was a clunky process by today’s standards, but remarkably advanced for its time. Woolworths New Zealand was one of the first three retailers globally to offer online grocery shopping, launching just months after Amazon and ahead of Woolworths Australia and Tesco in the UK.
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - NOVEMBER 26: Jenny Milne with her sons Samuel,left and Joshua shopping for groceries over the internet on her home computer in Kohimaramara, Wednesday. (Photo by Ross Land/Getty Images)
Thirty years later, Woolworths New Zealand has marked three decades of online grocery shopping, with more than eight million orders now fulfilled each year, an average of more than 150,000 a week.
Woolworths New Zealand Managing Director Sally Copland said what started as an experiment with 100 customers has fundamentally changed how Kiwis do one of life's most routine jobs.
“It’s quite extraordinary to look back at what shopping online actually involved in 1996. Customers needed a stack of floppy disks, a dial-up connection and a fair bit of patience, but there were still 100 Kiwis willing to give it a go,” said Copland.
“What I love is how bold the ambition was for the time. Take something every household has to do and find a completely new way to do it. Thirty years on, we’re still asking ourselves the same question: how do we make the weekly shop easier and give customers more time back?”
Today, more than 4,000 Woolworths team members pick and fulfil online orders, while around 700 drivers and 338 trucks and vans deliver groceries to customers across the country. These vehicles travelled around 16 million kms last year alone, with Woolworths’ electric fleet expected to clock up one million kms by Christmas.
While original online shoppers selected from set courier delivery windows, groceries can now go from order to doorstep in an average of around 34 minutes through MILKRUN, while Express Pick Up lets customers collect their groceries in under an hour.
There are also 72 Direct to Boot locations nationwide, putting the service within a 10-minute drive of around 42 percent of NZ's population.
Despite advances in how Kiwis shop, what goes in their virtual trolleys has remained reassuringly familiar. Bananas were among the most popular products ordered online in Woolworths’ earliest days and, three decades later, remain at the top of the list, alongside butter and milk.
Unsurprisingly, online orders today peak in the evenings and on weekends, with Woolworths continuing to evolve alongside this demand for convenience. Click & Collect launched nationwide in 2016, followed by New Zealand’s first 24-hour eStore in 2020, and more recently MILKRUN and Direct to Boot.
September 2026 marked the next step, with the launch of a new AI-enabled online shopping platform designed to provide a more intuitive and personalised experience across its website and app.
Copland said the focus now is on staying one step ahead of what customers need.
“Thirty years ago, the big idea was that you could do your grocery shopping without setting foot in a supermarket. Today, it’s about making your shopping work seamlessly for you, anticipating your needs and bringing ultimate ease to your weekly routine,” she added.
“Technology will keep evolving, but true innovation comes down to helping people live better and save time. That’s the future of shopping we’ll continue to build.”
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