Sainsbury's supermarket said grocery delivery sales growth has nearly halved since Christmas after executives forced a slowdown in preparation of a relaunch in April.
The dip reflected 'a reduction in marketing while the new customer website it launched,' it said. Sainsbury's said the roll-out in preparation of the new site was 80 per cent complete.
The decision, ordered by Sainsbury's incoming chief executive Mike Coupe, meant that online grocery sales increased only 6 per cent in the 10 weeks to March 15. It reported at Christmas that festive delivery sales increased by more than 10 per cent.
The slowdown came as Sainsbury's became the latest supermarket giant to disappoint on sales. It said like-for-like sales in the fourth quarter fell 3.8 per cent - its first like for like decline in nine years.
That meant full-year like-for-like sales across the business were completely flat on the previous year. Shares of Sainsbury's declined in early trading but recovered 2.5 pence by the end of the day to 313.9 pence.
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