Sainsbury’s to add 900 jobs for same-day delivery service

UK retailer Sainsbury's is creating 900 jobs as it puts into trial a same-day delivery service to meet the growing demand for online shopping in the UK's highly competitive grocery sector.

The supermarket giant said it would start the same-day service at three stores before rolling it out to 30 stores by Christmas, to keep pace with an increase in online orders across London.

It added, the service would allow customers who ordered by 12pm to have their shopping delivered to their home by 6pm, or they could use its click and collect service to pick it up from a supermarket at 4pm.

The move would be supported by the launch of a new online fulfillment centre in Bromley-by-Bow, east London, where it planned to immediately recruit 470 people followed by a further 430 by 2020.

The comes after Amazon's entry into the UK grocery market in June when it launched AmazonFresh, which offered same-day fresh food deliveries to 128 London postcodes.

Robbie Feather, Sainsbury's director for online, said, ''Demand for our online delivery service in the capital continues to grow.

''We expect this trend to continue as more and more customers enjoy the flexibility of multi-channel shopping using our groceries website and app, in addition to visiting stores.

Sainsbury's management had heavily focused this year on adapting to changing consumer trends, especially the rise of online shoppers who looked for convenience.

Supermarket boss Mike Coupe had publicly stated that he was on a mission for Sainsbury's consumers to be able to shop "wherever, whenever they want".

Analysts, however, had been sceptical about the feasibility of same-day delivery services.