Kmart online shopping launches

Kmart online shopping is now available.

Kmart launched online shopping in New Zealand this morning.

The retailer promises 2-4 day delivery for urban addresses, opening up its catalogue for home delivery.

Country manager Jason Picard said today was a soft launch which the retailer first announced on a Kmart fan page. The company will officially announce the launch at the Petone store opening on Thursday. Sales, however, were already strong.

"We're very happy," Picard said. "The volume of orders we had at even 4 and 5am was huge and exceeded our expectations."

Not all products are available to order online yet, with Picard saying sections will roll-out in stages over the coming months.

Picard said the online shopping is part of a bigger strategy to become more dominant in New Zealand retail, and said Kmart has more exciting plans up its sleeves which will be announced soon.

The Australian retailer confirmed plans for online shopping were in the works in June last year.

The has previously said it intended on operating 30 stores in New Zealand by 2020 and would be building two to three new ones every year.

Analyst Chris Wilkinson from First Retail Group said the launch was an interesting move.

"A key thing in online retail is being able to demonstrate range and availability," he said. But that doesn't necessarily translate into online sales.

"Seventy per cent of consumer decisions are digitally influenced," Wilkinson said, "but people will often use online shopping to pre-validate their decisions and go to stores to buy."

However, Wilkinson said people would travel far distances to shop at Kmart, especially in the South Island, because of its "aspirational" homeware range, and those people may now buy online instead.

Wilkinson didn't anticipate much effect on competitor, the Warehouse, saying it already has a fairly good online presence.