Ocado has raised its full-year guidance as retail sales rocketed in the third quarter.

The online supermarket sales surged by 15.5% to £658m in the quarter to 1 September, while volumes grew 15.4% year on year. It now expects sales to growith to reach a low double digit percentage, up from its previous guidance of mid to high single digit.

Average orders per week also grew by 14.7% to 437,000. Ocado said this was driven by growth in active customers of 10.3% on last year to 1.06 million as well as improved frequency as its slot availability and overall proposition was boosted.

Earlier this month, the grocer launched its sixth round of price cuts since June 2023. It said this investment in price has helped to drive further improvements in value perception as the average selling price decreased by 0.4% versus UK grocery inflation of 2%.

Despite the average basket value being broadly flat at £120.97, basket size was slightly up year on year.

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Ocado Retail chief executive Hannah Gibson said: “Our strategy remains focused on giving our customers unbeatable choice, unrivalled service and reassuringly good value. We’re seeing the momentum of this, with more customers shopping with us more often, getting even better service at better value.

“We know what our customers love, and we’re focused on our proposition every day. This includes our widest ever choice including more M&S food, more convenience with better availability of delivery slots and products, further improving our high perfect order rate and better value for money through our Ocado Price Promise and our latest Big Price Drop.

“We’re pleased with the progress we’re making and excited about how much more there is to deliver.”