Ocado says it closed its website yesterday for the first time ever so it could begin making changes to its algorithm to make deliveries “fairer” for would-be customers.

Ocado chief financial officer Duncan Tatton-Brown said today the website had been closed so the retailer’s technicians could make changes to the governing algorithm to improve the “fairness” by which people can book delivery slots.

While he wouldn’t be drawn on exactly what those changes would be, Tatton-Brown indicated Ocado was considering increasing limits on certain product lines, implementing means of stopping customers booking multiple delivery slots and even ways of prioritising the vulnerable and sick for delivery.

“The decision to close the website was not made because we couldn’t cope with the capacity,” said Tatton-Brown. “The website was closed so we could make changes to the code and technology that supports it to enable us to share our capacity in a more fair and accessible way to all of our customers.

“Some people are perhaps taking more orders or ordering at much larger baskets. It’s only right for us to consider a fairer allocation.

“We will try and do the right thing for those who are vulnerable; be that because of age or because of health conditions. Again, one of the reasons for closing the website to write some more code is to enable us to do more of that.”

Tatton-Brown said Ocado currently has limits on 1% of its 50,000 SKUs but said this was likely to increase when the website reopens on Saturday.

The retailer said yesterday it had closed Ocado.com and would not be taking new customers or orders until Saturday after the website saw unprecedented levels of demand.

Tatton-Brown explained: “Before we put in the queuing system, we had four-times the demand of our highest ever peak.

“We’ve had hours in the week where we have 100-times the normal level of transactions operating on the website. We’re seeing demand and transactions in less than one day that were greater than a normal week.”

Ocado also committed to paying all of its small suppliers with turnover up to £1m a year within 48 hours to ensure there are no future supply chain disruptions.

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