LONDON – Online grocery retailer Ocado reported strong growth in its quarterly results on Tuesday, as customers continue to embrace shopping online.
For the quarter to 27th August, revenue was up 13.1% to £312.7 million compared to the same quarter last year, while orders per week were up 16%, to 254,000.
However, the average size of customers' spend dropped just over a percent, from £107.56 to £106.25.
More frequent orders could be the reason for smaller baskets, although could also have been impacted by the spending slowdown. (The results do not specify whether more people are shopping online at Ocado, or whether customers are buying more frequently.)
After opening a new customer fulfillment centre in Andover earlier this year, Ocado reported on Tuesday it was investing in another, bigger centre in Erith, which would mean incurring "some costs" in the short term. However, CEO Tim Steiner said the investment would allow the company to meet customers' "rapidly growing demand."
Although the news caused shares to drop more than 5%, Steiner was positive: "We are pleased to report another strong quarter of growth," he said. "Our industry-leading technology has continued to set the bar for customer service and satisfaction and we continue to grow sales at a rate significantly in excess of the average for our industry.
"Recent innovations include Ocado becoming the first UK grocer to offer its customers Amazon's Alexa voice-activated tool, meaning they can verbally modify their online grocery orders," he said.
Here is the chart, as of 08:26 BST (03:26 EST) on Tuesday:
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