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Price cuts have helped entice shoppers to Ocado in its third quarter of trading, with retail sales up by 7.2% to £569.6m in the three months to 27 August.
Average orders per week grew by 1.9% year-on-year, “lapping a strong customer acquisition push” this time last year, and active customers reached 961,000 at the end of Q3, up by 1.5% year-on-year.
In addition, average basket value was up 4.2% over the period, while basket size remained “broadly stable” quarter-on-quarter at 44 items per order.
It comes as the group made a series of price cuts across hundreds of items, with its Big Price Drop campaign launching in August.
Following these results, and with positive momentum continuing into the fourth quarter, the group said its full-year guidance remains unchanged. It expects revenues to see mid-single digit growth, with an improving trajectory through the year, as well as marginally positive EBITDA.
Hannah Gibson, Ocado Retail’s CEO, said: “It has now been a year since I joined Ocado Retail and in January we set out our Perfect Execution strategy, making sure every element of our customer proposition and our operating model is at its best.
“We are delivering on this plan and have great momentum in the business, with revenue growing faster in Q3 than in H1 and a return to positive volume growth in the last month of the quarter. The continued progress in Q3 underpins our confidence in delivering our FY23 guidance of mid-single digit revenue growth and full year profitability, and we have started the final quarter positively.”
She added: “We continue to deepen our collaboration with M&S, including hundreds of new M&S lines set to launch in the Autumn. Together with our partners, we are intent on bringing even lower prices, more choice, and greater convenience to our customers. We are making good progress, but we want to go even further.
“I would like to thank the great team at Ocado for their relentless focus on the needs of our customers, as they navigated the cost of living crisis. Together, we look forward to building on the growing momentum of the business and continuing to raise the bar in online grocery through the rest of this year and beyond.”
