Waitrose targets UAE as it notches up online first

Waitrose has launched its first dedicated website overseas, Waitrose.ae.

This will offer more than 15,000 grocery products with over 2,800 delivery slots available each week, reaching 1,500+ homes across Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The website will provide same-day delivery.

Orders will be picked and packed in two of the retailer's 12 shops across Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It comes after Waitrose opened its sixth store in Dubai last month, with plans to launch two more in the city by the end of this year, in Jumeirah Golf Estates and Meadows Fountain’s View.

Sarah Burton, Business Manager, Commercial Sales, at Waitrose, comments: “Our e-commerce service has grown significantly in the UK and we're very excited to work with our partners in Fine Fare Foods to extend this to our customers in the United Arab Emirates.”

“It brings an even more convenient way for our customers in the UAE to shop Waitrose products, and we’re proud to bring the same quality and inspiration customers find in our shops, to our website."

First blood

Waitrose recently gave former partner Ocado a bloody nose as the pair started to duke it out for the hearts and minds of online shoppers.

Ocado Retail, the joint venture between Ocado and Marks & Spencer, had an average of 328,000 weekly orders in the fortnight after its 1st September launch. This was down from 345,000 orders a week in the seven weeks running up to that date, according to a report by The Sunday Times.

Waitrose, meanwhile, saw weekly orders on its website grow to 190,000, a near 20% capacity increase in the space of a month.

“They don’t have the technology”

In August, Ocado’s Chief Executive Tim Steiner hit out at Waitrose as the two pulled the plug on a 20 year relationship.

Steiner told The Sunday Times: “They [Waitrose] have done an advert saying ‘we’ll take it from here’ or something. Well, they can’t take it from here because they don’t have the technology, the infrastructure or the systems. To put it bluntly, they don’t understand the online market like we do.”