Name: Jon Rudoe
Retailer: Sainsbury’s

Jon, you left Ocado for Sainsbury’s last summer - is this win an indication the move is paying off?
Well, it’s a team effort. We have a co-ordinated business strategy that enables all parts of Sainsbury’s to serve customers in complementary ways. We’re very pleased with our continued strong performance, which has seen us out-growing the industry and also moving into second place in online over recent months. We’ve built up a strong focus on customer service and a high level of operational expertise.

The delivery driver was singled out for praise - what does the driver bring to the online operation?
The colleague who delivers your online order to your door is the face of our business, and the great service they deliver definitely contributes to our growth. We’ve invested in recruitment, training and other tools. But it’s worth remembering that every shop starts with one of our in-store shoppers - they’re a key part of the team.

Sainsbury’s came out bottom on carrier bags though - it used 11, almost double anyone else. Any plans to introduce eco-friendly crates?
There’s a balance for us around the number of bags that we use and delivering products to customers in great condition. Our drivers do take back bags from our customers and we’ve worked hard on our eco-credentials - we run electric vans in some urban areas, and have also improved the utilisation of our vans through a number of initiatives, reducing our use of fuel. It’s a story of constant improvement.

Our shopper said she found the website easy to navigate, with one or two minor problems. Do you have any examples of something tweaked recently to improve the website?
Our website consistently gets good feedback for ease of use, but we’re also continually looking to make improvements - that’s a theme for us. Just recently we’ve made some changes to product layout, which our customers tell us make it much easier to shop, and there is more in the pipeline.

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