Ocado’s share price is down this Monday as its previous partner Waitrose has reported a 20% increase in its online orders. A spokeswoman with Waitrose is said to have told The Grocer that more than 50 Waitrose shops are now fulfilling orders of more than 1,000 each week, with three shops delivering double this number. Data provided by Ocado to The Grocer indicated that just before Ocado split with Waitrose in favour of Marks & Spencer, the number of shoppers on its platform had dropped by 15.8% in the last two weeks of August.
Duncan Tatton-Brown, who is Ocado’s Chief Financial Officer, rebuffed any claims of losing shoppers to rivals, saying that there was “practically no sign” it had lost customers to Waitrose or others. However, a Sunday Times report seems to add credence to the data signifying that while Waitrose had gained ad additional 190,000 orders, Ocado had seen a corresponding drop in weekly orders from 345,000 before the Waitrose split, to 328,000 in the first two weeks of the launch of Ocado’s partnership with M&S.
Ocado is down nearly 1.35% this Monday on the news.
Ocado is well on the way to a 4th straight day of losses after a copyright infringement accusation rattled investors last week. The price is now on target to touching off the 2582 support level, after last week’s drop truncated the technical expectation of the bullish flag pattern. Continued losses on the share price could break down this support, which opens the door towards 2440 (19 August high and 15 September low). If the decline extends below 2440, price enters the range formed between June and August 2020.
On the flip side, a bounce of price on the 2624 price level allows for a recovery which targets the 2741 resistance (17 September high and 30 September low). Only a break above this level targets the all-time high at 2914.
