Sainsbury‘s has announced plans to introduce a same-day delivery service to 30 of its stores by Christmas to keep up with the rise in demand.

The first three stores that currently have same-day delivery trials are Richmond and Streatham Common in London and Brookwood in Surrey.

Sainsbury‘s said the service allows customers who order by 12noon to have their shopping delivered to their home by 6pm, or they can use its click-and-collect service to pick it up from a supermarket at 4pm.

In addition to the trial, a new, 185,000 sq ft online fulfilment centre will be built in Bromley-by-Bow in east London, where it plans to employ 470 people when it opens in autumn. Another 430 people will join the team by 2020.

The news comes a week after Sainsbury‘s announced it would trial a one-hour home delivery service, similar to Amazon‘s online delivery model, from its Wandsworth store in south London.

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Customers living within a three kilometres radius can order up to 20 products for delivery to their home within an hour if the orders are made on the Chop Chop app for iPhones or iPads.

Both trials come just as Amazon ramps up its share of the online grocery market. After launching AmazonFresh in June, the same-day fresh food delivery service now covers 128 London postcodes.

Sainsbury‘s online director Robbie Feather said demand for online delivery service, especially in London, continues to grow.

“We expect this trend to continue as more and more customers enjoy the flexibility of multi-channel shopping using our groceries website and app, in addition to visiting stores,” he said.

“Our online orders are currently picked from supermarket stores across the UK and this model will continue, but the Bromley-by-Bow centre will help us keep pace with demand in London, enabling us to fulfil another 25,000 orders per week.”

Sainsbury‘s has also previously announced plans to double its click-and-collect sites to 200 by the end of the next financial year.

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