The robots in Ocado warehouses have never been busier.

Sales at the British-based online grocer soared by just over 40 percent year-on-year in the second quarter.

The jump came as its home market went into lockdown.

Ocado was forced to block new registrations and impose a queue system after web traffic surged by hundreds of percent.

The company says it took a few weeks to adapt, and admits service standards suffered for a while.

It has increased its delivery capacity by about 40% in response.

And its high-tech warehouses are running at maximum output.

But the firms says it can only do so much to meet demand.

Pre-crisis, about 7% of UK grocery sales were delivered.

Tesco and the country’s other big supermarkets have all been ramping up capacity to meet the rising demand.

But even if delivery capacity doubles, that still leaves about 85% of grocery shopping being served by bricks-and-mortar stores.

Now Ocado says there are signs that shopping habits are returning to normal.

But it expects the shift to online grocery shopping to keep accelerating, even after the current crisis ends.