Image courtesy of Sainsbury’s Media tool kit

Sainsbury’s online grocery business has hit annual sales of £1bn as shown by its September figures.

The retailer’s online arm now delivers to over 190,000 customers every week with sales growth of over 16% per year.

Jon Rudoe, Sainsbury’s Director of Online, Digital & Cross-Channel, said: “We’ve gone from strength to strength in recent years, and hitting £1bn in sales is a great testament to the dedication to our colleagues who always go the extra mile to deliver outstanding service for our customers. We bring the fantastic service that customers enjoy in our stores in to customer’s homes via the web and our amazing Online delivery team.

The milestone follows the a prestigious Grocer Gold Award for Online Retailer of the Year in both 2013 and 2012 from The Grocer which also reports that customer satisfaction scores for the store are at an all time high.

Jon Rudoe adds, “We’re confident there is still a huge amount of potential for growth as our online grocery operation continues to complement our core supermarket business. Customers love the choice of shopping different channels at Sainsbury’s, and they reward us with their loyalty in store and online.”

Sainsbury’s Online has seen a lot of activity over the past few years including the acquisition of online entertainment company Global Media Vault Limited to support its Entertainment website; a majority stake in Anobii, a social network and retailer of e-books and the trial of Mobile Scan & Go, a new technology that lets customers scan items as they shop using their iPhone or Android phone and pay without unloading their trolley or basket at the till.

The retailer first launched its online grocery business in 1999 and it has now grown to employ over 10,000 colleagues covering 96% of UK postcodes and delivering over 10.5 million items every week.

To support its rapidly-growing online grocery business Sainsbury’s is opening its first dedicated Online Fulfilment Centre in Bromley-By-Bow, East London. The centre will help Sainsbury’s meet growing demand for its online grocery service in London and the South East, and allow the retailer to serve an additional 20,000 customers each week.

Jon Rudoe, said: “We work hard to ensure we deliver the very best service to our customers and the opening of the new Centre will enable us to maintain this. The site will be purpose built with the Sainsbury’s customer in mind and will support our existing store based operation, something that will continue to be the foundation of our online grocery business.

“I am confident that this new facility will take our online grocery operation to the next level and put us in a perfect position to meet the growing demand in London and the South East.”

Source: www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/media