Waitrose to sell John Lewis products online

Retailers partner to rival competition

Waitrose and John Lewis will aim to expand their non-food online offering

John Lewis Partnership will start selling a range of its non-food products through the Waitrose web site in a bid to bring the two businesses closer and to rival competition.

Under the group's "virtual homeshop", which was launched yesterday, customers will be able to purchase Waitrose and John Lewis-branded kitchen and homeware products and have them delivered at home or collect them from their local Waitrose store.

“Having John Lewis products as part of our range will strengthen Waitrose’s presence on the high street and will give us a real opportunity to rival our four main competitors with an exceptional non-food offer,” said Mark Price, managing director at Waitrose.

This follows last week's news of a major web site revamp at retail giant Sainsbury's, which sees it introduce a new non-food range online. Some 4,500 products ranging from toys to clothing and garden furniture will be initially stocked, with 70 per cent of the range available exclusively on the web.