Robert Peston’s TV programme on shopping on Monday made enthralling viewing.

Robert Peston’s TV programme on shopping on Monday made enthralling viewing.

The show colourfully captured how the industry was transformed in the post-war era and how in turn it transformed consumption and society.

Although the retail industry benefited then from increased disposable income as credit became widely available and demographic change led to the emergence of the teenager as a big force in shopping, what was also striking was how single initiatives recast the landscape.

Light-bulb moments such as Sainsbury’s opening of the UK’s first self-service supermarket or Dixons’ founder Lord Kalms’ move to to Far East sourcing fundamentally shifted the market.

The brightest light-bulb moment of recent years must surely have been the rise of ecommerce, and Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips, who issues first-half results next week, at last flicked the digital switch by forging a tie-up with Ocado in May.

Morrisons will launch its online offer with Ocado by January, and next week there is likely to be interest in how the plans are progressing.

There was much bemusement in the original reaction to the deal. The scale of investment and the 25-year length of the agreement raised eyebrows.

However there are signs that the City has subsequently bought in to Philips’ conviction that the deal makes sense. Over the three months to August 28, Morrisons’ shares rose more than 8%, outpacing listed rivals Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

Online retail is hardly new any more. Amazon is not far off its 20thbirthday and Asos is 13 years old.

But the momentum of ecommerce has accelerated in the last few years, helped by consumers’ adoption of mobile devices and the growth of services such as click-and-collect.

It’s tempting to wonder whether, if Peston were to make another retail show 30 years hence whether a hoary-headed Tim Steiner would be among the interviewees, recalling how the launch of Ocado changed the world just as surely as that first JS self-service shop.

In the end that will be decided, for Philips as well as Steiner, on the pesky matter of how much profit can sustainably be generated.