Waitrose extends trial of in-home delivery service

DeliveryX

Waitrose is more than doubling the coverage of its in-home delivery service trial as it looks to gather more data.
The ‘While You’re Away’ service will expand from 300 postcodes to 818 following positive feedback. This will increase the number of customers involved from 50 to 150.

The trial allows customers to get a free smart lock, enabling the customer to grant access to a Waitrose employee by setting a temporary access code for the lock which is then sent to Waitrose via a secure app.

The code is sent to the courier’s device at the time the customer has booked for the delivery and is deleted once the delivery is complete. The Waitrose employee, who wears a video camera, places the order inside the customer’s fridge.

Customers can shop from the full range available on Waitrose.com, with a minimum spend of £25.

Richard Ambler, head of business development at JLP Ventures, said: “Having to stay home for a delivery can be incredibly disruptive to your day and many of our customers now demand more flexibility.

“This service has great potential to revolutionise the way people do their shopping in the UK and the goal of extending this trial is to find just how much of an appetite there is for the service.

“So far, the response from customers has been hugely positive and we welcome anyone that is interested in the service to visit our website and sign up.”

In October Waitrose & Partners announced it would be the UK’s first supermarket to trial the delivery of groceries to customers’ homes while they are out.

German fast fashion retailer Zalando is trialling a similar service in Belgium.

Read More

Register for Newsletter

Created with Sketch.

Receive 3 newsletters per week

Created with Sketch.

Gain access to all Top500 research

Created with Sketch.

Personalise your experience on IR.net