Waitrose draws first blood in Ocado online battle

Waitrose has given former partner Ocado a bloody nose as the pair 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.

Also of interest: Hey Ocado, Waitrose is doing fine now without you

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

All Waitrose products are now only available in our stores and at https://t.co/YTETR3iVJp.

We've been listening to your feedback, and we're pleased to say that the minimum spend for deliveries will soon be just £40. We're just finalising timings, so watch this space. pic.twitter.com/eu9fhoCgrj
— Waitrose & Partners (@waitrose) September 1, 2020

“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 and Ocado started to sell and deliver food from Marks and Spencer.

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.”