Strong e-commerce sales aid Ocado and Co-Op

Thursday, January 17, 2013 - 11:12 by Sarah Collinson

Retailers experienced a relatively mixed Christmas period at the end of last year, with many high street chains finding that they were put under pressure due to cautious consumer spending.

However, safe shopping online has been a fruitful outlet for others, with the latest sales figures suggesting that Ocado and the Co-operative both had bumper years for e-commerce orders.

Interestingly, Co-Op does not have its own online delivery service, but instead found that it was benefitting from consumers using the e-commerce outlets offered by its rivals and then heading out to make last minute purchases in-store with its local establishments.

This is perhaps because Co-op is in a relatively unique position of relying on smaller bricks and mortar shops, which are within walking distance of customers' homes. Meanwhile, bigger supermarkets like Morrisons, which struggled with sales over Christmas, did not get the same level of last minute trade.

Ocado, on the other hand, is entirely reliant on safe shopping online to keep things ticking over and saw a 14 per cent rise in sales over the final two months of 2012.

It found that consumers were not only shopping in greater numbers, but that its existing customers were spending more with each shop.

Ocado spokesperson, Tim Steiner, said that he believes the British public is beginning to recognise e-commerce as a major player in the grocery market and would like to see it become an entirely online entity in the future.

This would obviously benefit Ocado, but would require a drastic reshaping of the retail landscape across the country.

While the opening of major out of town supermarkets was a major issue 15 years ago, it seems that things could be swinging in the other direction, with big stores under threat, while online and local shopping thrive.