Retailers are battling poor weather conditions as they attempt to lure shoppers to store and deliver orders to their homes.

Online grocer Ocado was forced to apologise after weather it described as “dastardly” caused food orders to be delivered late. 

The etailer posted on Facebook last night: “Due to the dastardly weather, some of our deliveries are running late this evening. If there’s poor weather in your area, please bear with us; we’ll endeavour to get to you as soon as we can.” 

Some Ocado orders were nearly two hours late, however most customers thanked the etailer for its service amid testing conditions.

Retailers are facing a logistical challenge as high winds and wet weather impact supply to stores and deliveries to homes.

Tesco received a barrage of complaints on its Facebook page from angry shoppers whose online deliveries had not turned up. 

Sainsbury’s customers complained of poor availability across a raft of stores with fresh food in scarce supply in many, shoppers claimed. 

The wet weather is also impacting an anticipated late Christmas spending rush. The New West End Company reported that footfall across the West End was down 9% year on year last week as a combination of the internet and poor weather impacted footfall. 

Springboard figures showed traffic in the last weekend before Christmas was down 3.8% on the equivalent weekend last year.

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