Morrisons is set to expand its same-day grocery delivery service with Amazon, taking advantage of a recent change to its deal with Ocado.
The “Morrisons at Amazon” service, which gives Prime customers same-day or one-hour delivery in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and parts of London, is set to expand.
2019 will see the service launch in Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Sheffield and Portsmouth.
Morrisons will become a retailer on Amazon’s Prime Now website and app and sell directly to customers through the marketplace, as well as continuing to be Amazon’s wholesale partner for its own grocery offering.
David Potts, Morrisons CEO, said: “Morrisons conveniently located local supermarkets and Amazon’s very popular website and customer offer are an ideal combination, offering ultra-fast same day grocery home delivery for customers in and around cities across Britain.
“Amazon has been a valued partner of Morrisons for over three years, and we are pleased to be expanding our relationship together. Continuing to partner with the best digital operators such as Amazon is a significant, capital light growth opportunity for Morrisons.”
Doug Gurr, Amazon UK Country Manager, said: “We have greatly valued our relationship with Morrisons since the launch of the Morrisons store on Prime Now in the UK in 2016 and expanding this relationship enables us to offer Morrisons high quality grocery selection to even more Prime members.
“We are committed to growing our grocery business so that we can continue to deliver what we know our customers will always care about – low prices, vast selection, and fast delivery – and our relationship with Morrisons is an important part of that long-term growth. With the Morrisons store on Prime Now, many Prime members can do their full weekly grocery shop online through Prime Now with ultra-fast same day delivery.”
The deepening of ties with Amazon follows Morrisons agreeing to change the terms of its contract with Ocado after the latter opted to free up warehouse space following a major fire at a distribution centre in Andover.
The grocers agreed to relax exclusivity provisions which prevented Morrisons from working with other digital partners such as Amazon. Morrisons is a customer of Ocado’s automation technology, Ocado Solutions. In exchange Morrisons.com suspended its use of Ocado’s Erith fulfilment centre. Currently it accounts for over 10,000 orders from the site and has the right to use 30% of the centre’s future order capacity.
