The Co-operative group is to begin selling food online for the first time as it strives to catch up with its rivals.
The mutually-owned grocer is battling to turn around a long period of poor performance under its new management and will this year begin the first of four trials, each of which will test a different model of delivery to customers.
The move will mean that Britain’s six largest supermarket groups will soon all be vying for trade online.
Steve Murrells, the chief executive of its food division, told Retail Week: “Evidence shows it replaces bricks-and-mortar sales and is margin-eroding. But if you are not prepared to eat your own children someone else might.”
Only 3.4 per cent of groceries are bought online