Deliveries of groceries ordered online from Bradford-based Morrisons have begun in the Midlands.

The first new Morrisons.com operation began by focusing on households across Warwickshire, Staffordshire, the West Midlands, Derbyshire, Leicester and parts of Nottinghamshire. Morrisons said one million new households each month will be able to shop with it via the internet, reaching 13 million by the end of January, 2015. The long-awaited online grocery service, which comes 14 years after Tesco launched its web-based food operation, is a key part of Morrisons strategy to defend its under-pressure grocery market share, along with rolling out convenience stores.

It follows the UK’s fourth largest supermarket’s announcement of a 5.6 drop in like-for-like sales over Christmas – the worst performance among leading retailers, while up-market Waitrose, with a store in Otley, increased seasonal sales by 3.1 per cent and the budget chains Aldi and Lidl continued to win share from the mainstream supermarkets.

Morrisons much-anticipated launch of its online grocery business also follows a Christmas shopping season which, according to the British Retail Consortium, saw more people than ever shopping online with web sales growing by 19.2 per cent over a year earlier compared with the same month in 2012, the fastest rate for more than three years.

Morrisons said there was strong interest in its online offer with thousands registering an interest, resulting in hundreds of deliveries. Customers had also been importing their shopping lists from all its rivals.

Delivery charges are £1, £3 or £5 depending on whether it’s peak, off-peak or standard times and, unlike its rivals, Morrisons.com will not vary charges if demand changes.

Customers are offered a one-hour time slot and be able to check the freshness of produce before accepting delivery.

Chief executive Dalton Philips said: “Today, Morrisons becomes a truly multi-channel business with an online offer that will lead the market in freshness, value and service, powered by best-in-class technology. It will be the closest thing on the internet to being in a store and selecting food yourself.”

Morrisons expects to be covering 50 per cent of the country by the beginning of 2015.

The data from the British Retail Consortium survey out by KPMG showed online trade represented 18.6 per cent of total non-food sales in December, up from 16.5 pr cent the year before.

Helen Dickinson BRC director, said online non-food sales growth was the best since 2010 and over all retail sales figures reflected a year of “encouraging but fragile recovery”.

David McCorquodale, KPMG head of retail, said: “Whilst store sales continue to flatline, online sales remain the main driver of growth for the sector. The winners this Christmas were those retailers with slick multichannel operations.”