Ocado Q3 sales supported by shift to online grocery
Growing customer numbers
Ocado CEO Tim Steiner said that the company was pleased with the steady growth of its business despite the increasingly competitive nature of the market. He said that Ocado’s performance demonstrated an on-going UK shift to online grocery shopping, as the company saw its weekly average orders rise 17.4% from 139,000 to 163,000. However, average order size fell slightly by 1.7% during the period to £111.64.
Click & Collect at tube stations
Ocado is beginning to broaden its horizons from home delivery as the sole way to service its online customers. Transport for London has revealed that it will partner with Ocado to offer click & collect from four London tube stations at Ealing, Ruislip, Eastcote and Woodford from 15 September. This follows news that Ocado was trialling click & collect with shoppers at the Hatfield Galeria shopping centre, close to its headquarters.
Click & collect is a major growth driver in UK grocery at present, with IGD ShopperVista Channel Focus data showing that 24% of online shoppers used click & collect services in the last month compared to 18% last year.
Continued specialism
During Q3 Ocado said it continued solid trading momentum with CFC efficiency. Its second destination site, Sizzle.co.uk, launched with 12,000 kitchen and dining SKUs to complement the company’s Fetch pet store.
Further, Ocado said that its platform business with Morrisons continued to progress well with increased demand and that it had seen good progress in development of its proprietary modular logistics solution, which will allow it to partner with others.
source: RetailAnalysis
