Demand surge overwhelms major U.K. e-grocer Ocado

Ocado is temporarily shutting down access to its e-commerce site.

The U.K.-based online grocer, which is providing the digital and robotics technology supporting Kroger’s next-generation, automated “customer fulfillment centers (CFCs), suspended operations on its e-commerce site as of Wednesday, March 18. Kroger holds a roughly 6% stake in Ocado.

“We are fully booked and at full capacity, and will be delivering to over 170,000 households in the next four days,” states a note from Ocado Retail Melanie Smith posted on the Ocado homepage. “If you have a delivery booked for Thursday (March 19) or Friday (March 20), cut-off times for editing these orders have already passed, but your driver will still arrive as expected. We will soon contact customers with orders for delivery from Saturday (March 21) onwards with details of how to edit their orders, and all customers will be able to access the website again from Saturday.”

The note also cites “simply staggering” website traffic and states Ocado will take the downtime to make some changes to its service to better serve customers, especially the “vulnerable and elderly.”

According to Bloomberg Canada, major U.K. grocers Tesco and Sainsbury are limiting purchases of grocery items to three or less and Morrisons will hire more workers to support an expansion in its home delivery service.