Sainsbury’s has relaunched and expanded its online food-to-order platform, with it now offering bespoke products to suit a wider variety of at-home events.
The ‘Occasions by Sainsbury’s’ service has been integrated into the group’s main website, with orders available for delivery or collection alongside a regular shop. The service previously operated via a separate food-to-order microsite.
The fully integrated service is claimed to take the hassle out of hosting with a variety of dishes to choose from. Sainsbury’s noted that it was inspired by customer feedback, which highlighted that time, expense, and effort were the biggest barriers to entertaining at home.
The ‘one stop shop’ on Sainsbury’s.co.uk offers a year-round range of ready-to-serve sandwich platters, pizzas, sides, desserts, and dine-in meals. The retailer noted that as the made-to-order products can now be ordered alongside a regular online shop, shoppers can also add the drinks, party plates, celebration cakes, snacks and other items to the same order so the whole event is covered.
In addition to the Occasions by Sainsbury’s range, the group is launching an online-exclusive Butcher service offering specialist and premium cuts, freshly prepared by its butchers for shoppers to order in advance. Alongside this, Sainsbury’s has secured a partnership with Sound Seafood to offer wild-caught fish and seafood, delivered directly to its customers.
“We know that our customers lead busy lives, with many citing a lack of time as a barrier to hosting, and we’re here to make the precious time spent together as easy as possible when it comes to entertaining,” said Rhian Bartlett, Chief Commercial Officer at Sainsbury’s.
“Taking inspiration from this insight, we’ve launched the new Occasions by Sainsbury’s range, to offer delicious, quality, convenient options to our customers for any occasion. Our new butcher and specialist fish services perfectly complement this, offering bespoke, made-to-order food that can be ordered directly from our online grocery site, creating a new level of convenience for our customers with everything in one place. We will continuously add to the Occasions by Sainsbury’s range in line with seasonal celebrations and everyday occasions that call for something extra special.”
NAM Implications:
- For those willing to entertain at home, Sainsbury’s appears to have a solution…
- …at least for the time and effort issue for shoppers.
- Shoppers’ third concern, expense, may prove to be a stumbling block.
- That said, being retail, little harm in ‘trying & seeing’…
- …the test being repeat sales.
- A move that will be watched by rivals…
