Ocado has said that “more normal shopping habits are back” after there was a huge jump in demand amid the coronavirus lockdown.
Its customers are now purchasing fewer items that at the peak period of demand, with the balance between fresh and long-live food returning to normal.
The online grocer has made changes to increase the delivery slots available, including suspending the delivery of mineral water.
Its revenues in April were up more than 40% from a year earlier.
The retailer said: “At the beginning of the outbreak demand increase significantly, almost overnight”.
It limited the number of items on sale initially in order to stop customers from panic buying.
Ocado said that these limits have since been rolled back as the number of items that shoppers are putting in their baskets “appears to have passed its peak but remains high”.
Group chief executive, Tim Stein, said: “We are facing quite a difficult challenge as we scale feeding the nation”.
The supermarket has been criticized on social media as customers faced being one of thousands in a virtual queue who are placing food orders.
Stein added: “Ocado remains in a strong position and we should be grateful that our current challenges are around growth, expansion and increased demands”.
