Britain's big four supermarket groups - market leader Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons - have greatly expanded their online grocery capacity during the crisis.

Following are some details:

TESCO

Online grocery slots (home delivery and Click & Collect) have increased from 600,000 per week at the start of the pandemic in March 2020 to 1.5 million.

Online sales growth was over 80% year-on-year, equating to 1 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) extra sales, over the 19 weeks to Jan. 9.

SAINSBURY'S

Online grocery slots have risen from 340,000 a week in March 2020 to about 850,000 currently.

Online grocery sales rose 128% year-on-year in the 15 weeks to Jan. 2.

ASDA

Increased its grocery home shopping capacity by 90% to 850,000 weekly slots between March and December 2020. Targeting up to one million in 2021.

Combined net sales for Asda.com and George.com (clothing) increased by 76% year-on-year in the fourth quarter to Dec. 31.

MORRISONS

Online and home delivery order capacity up five-fold, with five new growth channels: Morrisons.com store pick, food boxes, a doorstep service, 'Morrisons on Amazon' and Deliveroo.

Sales more than trebled in the nine weeks to Jan. 3 across all its online channels year-on-year.

($1 = 0.7184 pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Barbara Lewis)

By James Davey