Supermarket giant Morrisons has purchased Kiddicare, a website selling baby goods, in a £70m deal.

The deal is Morrisons' first steps into developing a non-food based online business, with the supermarket saying it will use Kiddicare's technology as a basis for developing the venture. The first products are expected in 2012.

Dalton Philips, chief executive of Morrisons said: "This acquisition brings not only a respected, successful and fast growing specialist retailer into the Morrisons group but also a robust, scalable and highly advanced technology platform around which we can begin to build our e-commerce offer."

Kiddicare, which was founded in 1974, will continue to trade under the kiddicare.com banner.