Ritchies
The Ritchies Group is one of the oldest retail groups in Australia, having recently celebrated 152 years in business! Ritchies currently hosts 75 grocery and 64 liquor stores, with the majority located in Victoria but also across NSW and QLD.
In 1993 they launched the Ritchies Community Benefit Program, a scheme which allowed shoppers to nominate a community or charity organisation to donate. The Program was incredibly successful and still operates today as a part of the Ritchies Loyalty Program, and has to date donated over $52 million to local community groups across Australia.
In early 2023, the Group's IGA Maclean Store won the IGA International Retailer of the Year award.
E-commerce was on the Group's radar for some time, but it was the Covid pandemic which accelerated the move to online. Myfoodlink seemed like a great fit for Ritchies, according to Ritchies National Marketing Manager, Chris Jonker, who said the years of experience the Myfoodlink platform offered, along with integration with SureFire POS Systems and ability to control/run the offer in-house meant that Ritchies could consider it a proven product which they could trust in taking their business online.
The process of taking the first store online took a few months, in terms of staff training and setting up new business systems. On 1 June 2021 their Mildura store went live with e-commerce, and their Pentridge and Carrum Downs stores followed closely behind.
The group has also used the Myfoodlink Platform to offer their catering menu to all stores under the banner of Ritchies Occasions. This option has been particularly popular with online shoppers, with customers able to place a catering order for platters via the Occasions store and select collect from their local store.
