The appetite for ordering pizza online is growing fast, it emerged today, as Domino’s Pizza revealed online sales up by more than 50% in the first quarter of the year.

Ecommerce sales in the 13 weeks to March 28 came in at £25.3m, up from £16.7m at the same time last year, a rise of 52.3%. Indeed, online orders accounted for 28.8% of all pizzas delivered in the period – up from 23.6% last year.

The growth shown on the ecommerce side ran well ahead of total sales – which were up by 17.5% to £118.9m, from £101.1m.

Chris Moore, chief executive, said the company had delivered despite snowy weather which forced many of its shops to close temporarily. He added: “We face some incredibly tough comparatives in the second half of the year but we have the people, the product and the plans to continue to deliver excellent results in the coming months.”

Our view: It seems a no-brainer that, given the option, many takeaway customers will prefer to cut out the phone call and order online – as long as they believe the delivery will arrive on time. Domino’s Pizza is proving that ecommerce works for them: it’s a strategy likely to be giving them the advantage over their offline-only rivals.

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