John Lewis and Waitrose look at life through the coronavirus lockdown

A new report from John Lewis and Waitrose reveals how Brits’ behaviour has changed during the coronavirus outbreak.

In terms of how we’ve shopped, basket sizes doubled in week two when Waitrose brought social distancing measures into place in its stores, while total customer numbers and shopping frequency fell to lower than the same period in 2019.

By week three, more than a quarter of Waitrose.com customers had not used the service in at least the last year. JohnLewis.com shopping patterns changed as the lack of a commute saw purchases spread throughout the day, although with a slight dip at 5pm as people tuned in for the government briefing.

By week four, searches for toys and books on JohnLewis.com started to spike at 8:30pm as parents looked for ways to keep children entertained. In week five, full trolley shops were up 56% at Waitrose compared to the same week last year. Single, meal-focused shops were down over 70%. JohnLewis.com saw customers putting more items in their shopping baskets per shop to streamline deliveries.

By week six, the average weight of a Waitrose.com order was 30% higher than usual, and included 49% more items. Check out the full report here.

New CFC

Waitrose will today open a six acre customer fulfilment centre on in Enfield, North London, as it looks to double its online grocery orders in the capital by September.

The site is creating 370 new jobs, building to 850 when at full capacity, by which time it will be adding 13,000 weekly delivery slots for London customers.

It is part of a £100 million investment in its online business, in preparation for Waitrose.com becoming the only place to buy Waitrose food online from September of this year (when the Ocado/M&S partnership kicks into gear).

Waitrose says that it has also significantly further accelerated plans to try and work towards meeting the “extreme demand” for online shopping from the coronavirus pandemic. Its online delivery service has increased by more than 50% to over 120,000 customer orders per week.

Priority is being given to vulnerable and elderly shoppers, with 35% of orders last week going to shoppers Waitrose is able to identify as being in this group. The retailer concedes, however, that demand is still far outstripping the number it can reach.

The Enfield centre will work alongside an existing one in Coulsdon, which delivers orders across the South London area, and a network of 14 delivery stores in the capital, which together cover all London postcodes. Forty stores in London have also in recent weeks become Click and Collect points. Across the UK, a network of 183 stores reach more than 90% of postcodes.

Waitrose has also more than trebled the size of its Rapid service to 7,000 orders per week, with at least 40% of slots reserved for vulnerable customers. The service offers up to 25 products for delivery within two hours.