The Scentre Group (ASX: SCG) share price is up 1% in early afternoon trading, to $3.02 per share.
That's about twice the 0.6% gains posted by the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) at this same time.
Scentre's share price gain today comes as the ASX 200 retail giant unveiled the launch of what it calls "Westfield Direct".
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What is Westfield Direct?
In a release this morning, that's unlikely to have a material impact on the Scentre share price today, the company reported that Westfield Direct will allow Aussies to shop from any of Westfield's 37 locations, 24 hours per day.
The new online service offers both click-and-collect and home delivery options, along with potential reward credits for members.
Scentre said that it is continuing to expand the offering, with new businesses continuing to join the more than 100 current existing business partners already participating
Commenting on the launch, Scentre Group's chief customer and business development officer, Phil McAveety said:
We are bringing the Westfield experience to more people. This is fundamental to our customer strategy and our ambition to grow. Westfield Direct offers more convenience, flexibility and choice for customers to shop Westfield, any time, anywhere – still with the human connection they value.
Westfield Direct provides our business partners with the opportunity to increase the productivity of their physical store networks whilst alleviating the time-intensive and costly process of fulfilling and delivering orders. Westfield Direct also presents a significant growth opportunity for our SME retail partners, many of whom only have one or two physical stores with us and no online presence.
Scentre reported that it will provide an Aussie-based customer care team, reachable via live chat or email, to support the service.
Scentre share price snapshot
The Scentre share price has gained 8.1% year-to-date, almost in line with the 8.6% gain posted by the ASX 200.
Over the past month Scentre has outperformed the benchmark, with shares up 3.5% compared to a 3.6% loss on the ASX 200.
