Waitrose has optimised its website for mobile phones and launched an iPhone app as it seeks to widen the brand’s appeal.
The mobile channel and app have been launched following demand from customers for easier access via digital channels.
The offer will include recipes and promotions, plus tips from Waitrose’s celebrity chefs Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal. It also gives GPS branch finders for nearby stores and a shopping list function which organises products by aisle or recipe.
There is also a ‘Cook’s Tools’ function, which has a timer, weight conversion chart, seasonal food information, a food and wine matching guide, a nutritional information guide and how-to videos.
Waitrose head of web selling and online marketing Nick Marley said the mobile tools would be key in helping to develop an ongoing dialogue with customers and confirmed that online shopping would be added “in the not so distant future”.
Sister department store chain John Lewis is understood to be seeking to launch its own mobile website and app as well, although a spokesman said he could not share any details at present.
The move follows rival Marks & Spencer launching a mobile website earlier in the year.
Separately, Waitrose has appointed David Jones, currently divisional registrar for John Lewis, as supply chain director.
He replaces Mark Williamson, who moved to become commercial director, following Richard Hodgson’s resignation to take up the post of group commercial director
at Morrisons.
Jones has been with the John Lewis Partnership since 1982.
➤ Waitrose and John Lewis will open pop-up shops at fashion and music festival Vintage at Goodwood. The John Lewis shop will feature a giant sewing machine set against a vintage-inspired print. Vintage at Goodwood takes place from August 13 to 15.
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