Tesco is bringing access to its Christmas delivery slots forward by a week, and has added 60 vans to its fleet to cope with demand.
The supermarket said there will be “thousands of extra slots across the UK” available to customers in the two weeks leading up to Christmas Day.
Shoppers signed up to the supermarket’s Anytime Delivery Saver plan or Click & Collect plan can book Christmas slots from 6am on 5 November. Slots open for all other customers on 12 November at 6am. That’s a week earlier than last year, which itself was a week earlier than in 2022.
Tesco has also increased the capacity of its rapid delivery service Whoosh, with thousands of extra delivery slots available on Christmas Eve, “meaning customers can shop for last-minute essentials or forgotten items for the all-important Christmas Day feast”.
“We’re looking forward to helping customers across the UK pick up their family favourites or treat themselves to something special this festive season. As we help customers plan ahead for their Christmas shop this year, we are excited to be providing increased capacity with thousands of extra slots available in the fortnight leading up to Christmas Day,” said Tom Denyard, MD of Tesco Online.
The supermarket is using the demand for Christmas delivery slots to promote its Delivery Saver subscription-based delivery service, which offers a range of plans running for six or 12 months, starting from £2.49 a month. Tesco’s Anytime Delivery plan – which offers same-day delivery from £6.99 a month for a 12-month plan – gives subscribers earlier access to priority Christmas and Easter delivery slots.
To benefit from priority Christmas booking, shoppers have until 4 November to sign up.
“There is no better time to sign up to a convenient Delivery Saver plan and benefit from festive priority slot bookings,” Denyard said.
Last month, Morrisons announced it was opening access to its Christmas delivery slots more than a fortnight earlier than last year in response to customer feedback. Most supermarkets have already launched dedicated pages on their grocery websites, where Christmas ranges, party food, confectionery and alcohol can be shopped.
In 2022, Tesco shoppers attempting to book a Christmas delivery slot reported website crashes and hours-long wait times to reach the front of a queue of close to 300,000 people.
Tesco told complainants on Twitter it was “seeing an unprecedented volume of traffic on our website, and because of this some customers are temporarily experiencing a problem when logging onto our website or placing orders”. The supermarket implemented a “temporary limit” on the number of people using the website to manage the demand on its systems and scrambled its IT teams to resolve the issues.
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