Tesco boss Dave Lewis has said the grocer will add free delivery to its Clubcard Plus membership scheme in fightback against Amazon.

The grocery titan’s boss Lewis said the business will match the move made by Amazon last month to offer free home deliveries on all Amazon Fresh orders over £40 to Prime members.

Tesco launched its Clubcard Plus scheme last November and plans to waive delivery fees for its members, who currently pay £7.99 a month for benefits including a 10% discount up to £20 for two of their shops per month.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph Dave Lewis said: “I understand the move [from Amazon]. The idea of Prime is very similar to where we are in Clubcard Plus, in terms of bringing a whole bunch of benefits together. So an opportunity into the future for us is to think about how we put delivery into Clubcard Plus. That’s always been the direction of travel.”

Lewis warned, however, that Tesco would need to ensure that it “can match capacity with that [online] demand” before such a scheme is introduced. The grocer has record a surge in online shopping since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic which has seen the retailer more than double its weekly online delivery slots from 600,000 per week to 1.4 million, but has incurred significant costs as a result.

Tesco would be the first major UK grocer to waive online delivery fees if it were to launch such a scheme.