Supermarket Waitrose has processed 150,000 online orders in a week for the first time, more than double the amount of weekly orders at the start of 2020.
Given the combination of its deal with Ocado ending in September, and the increase in online grocery shopping during lockdown Waitrose has been scaling up its operations since the start of the year by increasing the amount of available delivery slots.
As a result it has revealed plans to add 150 vans to its fleet over the next few weeks, to further increase its available delivery slots.
In February the company announced that a further 24 shops would be made ‘delivery shops’ between now and 1 September 2020, when Waitrose.com becomes the only place customers can order Waitrose food online.
Two Customer Fulfilment Centres in Coulsdon, south London, and Enfield, north London. support the additional demand in the capital – the latter of which opened on 7 May.
Waitrose said that demand for online delivery slots was still outstripping supply.
Its ‘Waitrose Rapid’ service has recently trebled its deliveries to 7,000 per week. The service offers up to 25 products for delivery within two hours.
Ben Stimson, director at Waitrose.com said: “The expansion plans we had in place for Waitrose.com have allowed us to respond as best we can to the huge surge in demand in recent months – especially from vulnerable groups who need home delivery services. We’re seeing a fundamental shift to many people’s shopping habits, and we’re incredibly proud of how our shops have scaled up our online operations at such speed.”
