Ocado sales surge as consumers switch to online shopping
Ocado sales soared in the third quarter as more customers continued to switch to online shopping due to the pandemic.
Retail revenue surged 52 per cent to £587.3m in the 13 weeks to 30 August due to high demand for home grocery deliveries.
Ocado’s share price jumped 5.99 per cent this morning after it forecast a full-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation result of at least £40m due to the strength of its retail business.
The pandemic has accelerated the shift to online shopping, with supermarkets reporting bumper sales during lockdown.
The average order size has reduced from the height of the coronavirus lockdown, but is still above pre-crisis levels.
Orders per week have increased due to strong demand, a phased reopening of the website to new customers and normalising shopping patterns.
Ocado also said customers have “responded positively” to the switchover from Waitrose products to M&S. There has been an increase in the number of products in customer baskets and strong forward demand since the new partnership launched at the beginning of September.
Ocado Retail chief executive Melanie Smith said: “These are transformational times for Ocado Retail with M&S products now exclusively available online at Ocado.com.
“The successful switchover means that M&S products are available to buy in a weekly shop side by side with branded products for the first time. As a result, we can now offer customers more choice and better value than ever before, wider ranges than any traditional retailer, and thousands of products that are only available online through Ocado.com.”
She added: “Our aim is to continue to set the bar as we begin again to welcome new customers who are seeing the benefits of online shopping in ever greater numbers and we remain focused and on track to increase capacity by 40 per cent through to 2021.”