Morrisons and Ocado negotiate e-commerce arrangement

Friday, March 15, 2013 - 11:23 by Simon Crisp

It looks like Morrisons could be joining forces with Ocado, to deliver grocery to its customers who want to buy products via safe shopping online.

An official statement from Ocado released this week, revealed that the two companies have been in talks to see if an agreement can be reached to finally help Morrisons launch its own e-commerce service.

Ocado made clear that while the firms were negotiating with an eye to potentially working together on delivery, there is no current plan to allow Morrisons to acquire any stake in its future partner.

Ocado also revealed that it would not be altering its current relationship with Waitrose, even if the Morrisons deal does go through, which is good news for consumers who are already familiar with this lengthy partnership.

Although the statement seems to paint a fairly positive picture of the discussions in their current state, Ocado said that nothing concrete has been decided and there is still the possibility that talks will break down before an agreement is finalised.

Morrisons has been the subject of much debate in the past few weeks, since its recent performance figures revealed that it has been struggling to keep up with its rivals, due to a lack of a transactional website.

Getting together with an established grocery delivery service and using its existing infrastructure and expertise is a good move for Morrisons. Both customers and shareholders will be hoping that 2013 is the year in which it enters the online marketplace, because to miss out on this opportunity, might prove fatal in the long run.

Morrisons has yet to release its own statement regarding the talks, although it is expected to make one soon, at which point we should get a better flavour of how things are progressing.