Warehouse joins daily deal market

The Warehouse has entered the daily deals market, launching a service called Red Alert.

The NZX-listed group claims it's the first Kiwi retailer to offer daily deals, with most of the other providers run by media companies and specialist websites.

Red Alert will offer consumers specials for a limited time and many would not be available in stores. The deals would be available from 10am to 10am the following day on a first-in, first-served basis.

The Red Sheds are aiming to be the largest New Zealand general merchandise and apparel retailer online.

Almost its entire product range is now offered online, with sales growing at around 60 per cent a year, it said in a statement.

Group chief executive Mark Powell said he was confident in the strength of the company's buying power and supply chain fulfilment.

"The daily deals market is the fastest growing part of the online market, having more than doubled in the last three years," he said.

The Red Alert service was part of the company's ongoing investment in multi-channel sales and more direct customer engagement, which was important in a market in which more than 5 per cent of retail sales to Kiwis are made online, the company said.

Powell said upgrades to its online shopping experience were ongoing and that customer response to online had been very strong with shipments of parallel-imported iPads selling out in minutes.

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