Ocado Retail delivered record sales over Christmas in 'challenging market'

The grocery group said sales were up by 15 per cent over the five days before Christmas, with 72,000 orders made on a single day – the highest it has ever seen.

It has also seen its active customers grow to 940,000 by the end of the fourth quarter, up 12.9 per cent compared to the same period last year, and with the average number of orders a week up by nearly 2 per cent year-on-year.

Ocado revealed that the average value of people’s orders was £117, a slight drop from last year because, despite inflation pushing up prices, its customers were putting fewer items in their baskets on average.

It said this decline in basket volumes was due to “an unwind of pandemic shopping behaviours, accelerated by the onset of the cost-of-living crisis”, and caused its full-year revenues to dip by 3.8 per cent compared to the year before.

Hannah Gibson, Ocado Retail’s chief executive, said: “This year we delivered our biggest-ever Christmas for our customers at Ocado.

“We now have close to one million active customers, our largest-ever customer base and we see huge potential to convert those who have now trialled online shopping elsewhere to become Ocado customers.

“The year ahead will set us up to deliver strong sales and profit growth over the mid-term.

“In 2023 we will continue to strengthen and improve our leading customer proposition, including investing in value to help customers manage cost-of-living pressures, while keeping tight control of our costs.

“While the current market environment is challenging for everyone, I am very excited in the future for Ocado Retail.”