The Co-op is set to become the latest UK food chain to offer safe shopping online to its customers who would rather get their groceries delivered direct to their door than have to head out to their local convenience store.

A small-scale trial of this service began last month, but it is now being rolled out nationally in order to capture some of the ever-growing e-commerce market, according to Internet Retailing.

Perhaps most impressive of all is the promise that customers can place orders and expect them to be fulfilled within two hours, rather than having to wait a day or more for the food to arrive.

This super-fast form of delivery will only be available in certain parts of the country for obvious reasons, but it is good to see the Co-op making an aggressive attempt to barge its way into contention at a time when the likes of Amazon are also eyeing the grocery market with eagerness.

The condition for two-hour delivery is that the customer in question lives within four kilometres of a Co-op outlet. Just a handful of stores in the capital will support this service for the time being, but it will be expanded over time as organisers establish just how viable this type of solution can be once put into practice.

Company spokesperson Chris Conway said that digital expansion was an important part of the Co-op’s plans for gaining traction in the modern grocery marketplace - hence the decision to begin its campaign to provide convenience store shopping combined with home delivery.

While supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury’s have been longstanding providers of grocery delivers for over a decade, Co-op is not the only latecomer. Morrison’s was also reluctant to get into online shopping until relatively recently, showing that there is room for more brands to occupy this space.