Ocado now delivers full grocery shops in 100 minutes

Ocado can now deliver a full grocery shop to UK customers in as little as 100 minutes after rolling out its Swift Router technology across all six of its automated warehouses.

The milestone appears in Ocado Group’s half year results, published Thursday (16 July), which confirm the rapid fulfilment system now operates from every customer fulfilment centre in the UK.

Swift Router lets Ocado offer its full range of roughly 44,000 products on dramatically shortened lead times, rather than the limited convenience store selection offered by rapid delivery rivals.

Customers who order through Ocado.com can now receive a complete weekly shop, not just top up items, in under two hours where capacity allows.

Rapid grocery services have historically forced a trade off between speed and range, with dark store operators offering a few thousand products at premium prices. Ocado’s system routes short lead time orders through the same automated warehouses that handle its scheduled deliveries, so shoppers get identical prices, range and service levels.

How the system works

Swift Router slots urgent orders into Ocado’s existing picking and delivery network rather than running a separate operation. The company’s robotic warehouses pick orders at an average of 267 units per hour, and its routing software builds delivery runs that mix scheduled and short notice drops.

Ocado’s delivery operation has become more efficient at the same time. Drivers now complete an average of 22.5 drops per standardised eight hour shift, up 6.1% year on year, helped by denser delivery routes and improved planning software.

The technology is not limited to the UK. Ocado Group says Swift Router now runs in 15 warehouses globally across its partner network, and four client partners have signed to integrate with online aggregators such as Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo.

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