Following a 10 year deal with Ocado which prevents Waitrose from delivering goods in London city, up to the M25, Waitrose have pulled out all the stops on a new all singing, all dancing marketing campaign. The campaign in question “we shop like you shop†will include a huge push on free delivery for orders over £50 if consumers order online. According to Marketing Week’s report this will not take effect until the end of June when the agreement with Ocado has expired. Waitrose will need to gain rights to deliver to the London city area to compete against Ocado. But also not forgetting direct competition, what are supermarket brands doing…?
Waitrose comprehensive marketing campaign is set to include advertisements on Waitrose delivery vans, direct marketing via direct mail and emails, door drops, online advertising, social media campaigns as well as promotion in individual branches. Other supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s have also ramped up their online offerings with their click and collect service which allows customers to order non-food products and collect the following day from over 300 locations in the UK. This reflects the movement to online purchasing for supermarket products, whether this is food, or non-food goods.
According to the BBC the push to online activity is also reflective of Ocado’s support for the brand to encourage online purchasing. Ocado view the shift to online shopping as beneficial to their business model.  Waitrose are taking advantage of their new position and are pushing the free delivery offer on the website. Let’s hope they can break into London’s lucrative home delivery market…it’s all resting on their campaign to get the message out to the Londoners who are currently using other brands and distributors.Â