Waitrose installs click and collect lockers
Waitrose is stepping up its multi-channel offering with the launch of automated temperature-controlled lockers for customers to collect the shopping they order online in locations where the supermarket does not have a store.
Shoppers who place an order on Waitrose.com will receive a text message with a PIN number, which they can enter on the touch screen integrated in the locker to collect their purchase.
The service, which Waitrose says is a “UK grocery first”, will be free for orders of more than £50 when it launches next year.
Waitrose ecommerce director Robin Phillips says collection lockers will unlock the potential for the supermarket to reach customers in locations where it does not have a shop and which are convenient to them.
Phillips adds: “More and more people are adding an online shopping mission to their way of buying from Waitrose and we will continue to invest in making sure that we give them what they want, when they want it.”
The lockers mark the latest in Waitrose and the wider John Lewis Partnership’s efforts to boost its standing as a multichannel retailer.
Earlier this year Waitrose launched a drive-thru grocery service and John Lewis introduced free returns at corner shops as part of the CollectPlus scheme.
Sales at Waitrose.com were up 50 per cent compared to market growth of 15.2 per cent in the 12 weeks to 12 May, according to Kantar Worldpanel data.
