The Co-op’s online shopping service went live in November.
Chief executive Mark Cox said that the company had struggled to keep up with demand following the sudden rise in Covid-19 cases towards the end of last year, which forced many people to self-isolate.
This was exacerbated by the general increase in food shopping over the Christmas period.
‘One of the things we realised in the first lockdown was that there are a lot of vulnerable people in need of home-delivery services,’ he said.
‘With the rise in Covid cases coming so soon after the site’s launch in November, there was an immense strain and extra demand placed on what is still a relatively new service.’
The increase in people using online delivery services was felt by many local
companies, with some taking on additional staff and vehicles to help meet the demand.
Mr Cox said that to improve availability, orders were now being fulfilled from both the St Peter and St Helier Grand Marché stores.
‘We’ve increased capacity significantly since [the launch] and have moved an element of the picking to St Peter so we now have more capacity to deal with orders coming in,’ he said. ‘We will continue to invest in, and develop, the service and our online facility.’
