Waitrose’s online sales are rocking. Over the past year, revenue has grown 13%, with volumes up 11%. Dot com now accounts for 17% of Waitrose’s total sales and is growing. It’s been a team effort, says online director Laura Burbedge, that’s been delivered by thinking about “all aspects of the customer journey”, from the first click to the front door.
That was evident in our latest Grocer 33 online shop in Birmingham, where Waitrose scored a near-perfect 96/100.
Burbedge sat down with The Grocer to discuss how Waitrose nails customer experience and substitutions, is growing its ondemand sales and her plans to take the Waitrose online experience to the next level.
What have you done to improve Waitrose’s online experience since we last spoke in February 2025? A multitude of things! But there are three main areas. One of the biggest investments has been into our drivers. They are a huge part of the experience that we want our customers to have with the brand. We’ve rolled out a bespoke training package across the country aimed at giving them the tools, skills and confidence to deliver an excellent doorstep experience.
We’ve also done a lot of work with the supply chain team to improve the level of substitutions. Then, finally, we’ve done a lot of work on the website in terms of demonstrating that we offer great value. That includes experimenting with online-only meal deals.
Where was the order fulfilled? How typical is that model for Waitrose? Fulfilment is quite simple in the Waitrose world. We only use CFCs in London. Any order outside of there will always be fulfilled by a shop. In this case, it was Waitrose Droitwich, so it’s amazing for them to get the recognition.
Substitutions can be a pain point for online shoppers, tell us more about how you’ve improved them…We’ve used our existing customer data to really hone our algorithm. It’s not as advanced as AI, but it’s always learning what represents a ‘suitable’ substitution, based on what customers might have rejected before.
Then, along with our commercial team, we’ve put in some really strong guardrails to ensure we’re never degrading from the quality of the product that the customer has chosen. For example, we will never give less in terms of quantity and will always look to ‘treat up’ when it comes to brand or tier. Strong availability is obviously really important to ensure we’re able to do that.
Our shopper was also impressed by the search capability on the website. Why is it so accurate? We replatformed our search tech around two years ago. But we also have a dedicated search team who are continuously analysing and refining the function. Search is the easiest way for a customer to build a basket, but we also know how frustrating it can be if it comes back with nonsense, so it’s a constant and sustained effort to make sure it’s better.
Waitrose is permanently extending on-demand delivery hours at some stores following the success of the World Cup. Why? It wasn’t universally true across the board, but at some there was definitely a spike in orders coming through at that time of the day, which was meaningful enough for us to believe it’s worth investing more into partners at those stores to meet demand. Surprisingly, there’s no real typical location, it can depend on whether there are other convenience stores nearby or on factors like the weather as to what dictates demand.
Is this a summer trend or a permanent change in shopping behaviour? Weather and events like the World Cup will always drive demand, but outside of that we’re definitely seeing it as a permanent change. It’s still relatively early days, but the growth of the various marketplace platforms has made it much more accessible as a concept to customers, who can see the value in the flexibility and convenience they offer in key moments.
Are there areas of the Waitrose online shopping experience you’d like to improve? Why? Everything, always. But if I had to really focus on one area it would be that last mile. How do we make sure that our drivers show up calm, smiley, relaxed and ready to deliver brilliant doorstep service? There’s a lot of work going on in the background on some of the underlying tech to make processes as stress free and seamless for them as possible.
Customers might not see anything jazzy on the website or app, but hopefully they will be able to feel it on the doorstep.
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