Morrisons’ first retail website is in final testing and is set to go live ‘imminently’.

By the end of next month, the retailer will begin selling wine through Morrisons Cellar - which will initially launch as both a website and in mobile-optimised form.

Shoppers will be able to buy wine in six and 12-bottle cases containing either a single wine or a mix pre-selected by Morrisons, or can select their own 12-bottle case. Wine will be delivered free of charge to consumers through courier Yodel, although Morrisons is also looking at the option of a click and collect service. The retailer currently carries about 550 wines in its stores, while Morrisons Cellar will list more than 1,000.

Morrisons said one element of the site that set it apart from the rest of the market was its Taste Test, which rated a shopper’s palette from 0 to 12 based on three multiple choice questions: their favourite hot drink, how much salt they used, and how much sugar they preferred. Each wine sold on the site is rated from 0 to 12, and Morrisons claimed shoppers would enjoy the taste of any wine that matched, or was very similar, to their palette.

“People are confused by wine - drinking wine should be a pleasure, and so should buying wine, but for many people that simply isn’t the case as some shoppers find it confusing and intimidating,” said Morrisons strategy partner Simon Harrison. “We are launching the Taste Test concept to cut through the complexity.”

Harrison added that the Cellar website had been driven by the expertise of online baby product retailer Kiddicare, which it acquired for £70m in 2011, with Morrisons staff working alongside the Kiddicare team on its development. “It’s probably no exaggeration to say we wouldn’t be where we are today if it hadn’t been for the Kiddicare acquisition,” he said.

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