Ocado traffic surges in first week of Marks & Spencer partnership

Figures revealed today in Retail Week’s latest Coronavirus Consumer Pulse monitor revealed that an average of 293,300 shoppers visited Ocado.com every day during the week beginning August 30. 

According to the data compiled by online intelligence platform SimilarWeb and analytics specialist The Smart Cube, the total marked a 20.6% increase in web hits week-on-week. 

It was also the busiest week Ocado had experienced since the seven days beginning April 26, when more than 310,000 consumers visited its website every day. 

At the height of the pandemic, in the week beginning March 22, Ocado.com attracted an average of almost 672,000 shoppers a day. 

Waitrose, which split from Ocado at the end of August, suffered contrasting fortunes. 

Traffic to the upmarket grocer’s website slipped to an average of 171,900 visits per day in the week beginning August 30 – down 6.4% compared with the previous seven days. 

All eyes have been on how Ocado and Waitrose would perform online following the end of their partnership and the start of Ocado’s deal with M&S. 

The high street stalwart paid £750m for a 50% stake in Ocado Retail, a deal that took the retailer’s food proposition online for the first time. 

But, as previously reported by Retail Week, the joint venture got off to a rocky start. 

Ocado was forced to apologise to customers on launch day last Tuesday after a “small number” of orders were cancelled amid a surge in demand.

The following day, Retail Week revealed Ocado has paused all deliveries to staff members in order to prioritise clearing the backlog of customer orders.