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Sainsbury's challenges Amazon with trial of one-hour grocery delivery in London

UK supermarket Sainsbury’s is to trial a new one hour delivery service in a London borough the chain has announced, as it looks to muscle in on Amazon’s same day delivery market.

The grocer, which is the UK’s second biggest supermarket, announced the launch of its new ‘Chop Shop’ service which will be available for those living within 3km of its Wandsworth store in South London.

Offering a flat-rate delivery fee of £4.99, customers will be able to order up to 20 items for delivery to their homes within one hour using an app available for Apple devices.

According to Reuters, Sainsbury’s Chief Executive Mike Coupe told analysts at Bernstein on Thursday, that the grocer can ‘see potential demand for the provision of a basket of food’ within a rapid timescale, and would be able to draw on its mixture of bricks and mortar and online expertise.

It comes as online retail becomes a major battleground for the UK’s traditional supermarkets, who have been squeezed in recent years by budget retailers such as Aldi and Lidl and are now facing competition from US giant Amazon which launched its Amazon Fresh initiative in the UK last month.

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