Mirvac Retail has rolled out a new online marketplace and contactless drive-through collection across centres in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.
The new online marketplace called Essentials Express, which allows customers to buy a wide range of everyday items using click and collect, is now operating at Moonee Ponds Central in Melbourne.
Customers can buy items online and pick them up at a dedicated drive-through location at the centre from Tuesday to Thursday. Kelly Miller, general manager or retail at Mirvac, said the concept to delivery was accelerated to just one week.
“The key to this had been a willingness of our retail partners involved to be agile and rapid in the rollout of the Essentials Express,” Miller said. “Our retailers have been very enthusiastic, and we are thrilled to deliver a curated and collaborative, online solution so they can continue to serve their customers.”
Miller said this is also their chance to support smaller and locally loved retailers that may not have the scale and resources traditionally to adapt their operating models and implement this type of technology solutions.
Mirvac said the original initiative to provide shoppers with curated essential groceries came from a partnership with long-time local green-grocer John De Maria.
“Armed with a desire and concern to keep his employees in work and to maintain his decades-long relationships with local Moonee Ponds customers, John and Moonee Ponds Central management started to offer the contactless pick-up service for boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables,” Mirvac said.
Cherrybrook Village in Sydney has also adapted a contactless pick-up service with local retailer Martelli’s Market offering a curated range of essential items packaged for next day drive-through pick-up for their customers.
The online marketplace will activate within the next fortnight across centres in New South Wales (Rhodes Waterside and East Village) and within the month in Brisbane (Toombul and Orion Springfield Central).
