Morrisons says shopping online for groceries on its new website will be the closest thing on the internet to being in one of its 500 stores.

The Bradford-based supermarket’s online site has gone live ahead of the first deliveries being made in January – initially to homes in the Midlands.

Morrisons says its new online food offer will set new standards for the delivery of fresh food in the UK.

Deliveries will start on January 10 in Warwickshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Derbyshire, Leicester and parts of Nottinghamshire Executives at the supermarket say that a million new households each month will be able to shop with it via the internet, reaching 13 million by the end of January, 2015.

The move sees Morrisons catching up with the rest of its major competitors which have been selling groceries online for several years. Morrisons is building its online business from a standing start through a technology tie-up with online retailer Ocado.

When initially announcing the move into online grocery sales, chief executive Dalton Philips said: “We are late to the party but I am confident we can make quite an entrance.”

He had previously admitted that its absence from the online food market was costing the UK’s fourth largest supermarket £500 million a year in lost sales as rivals enjoyed double-digit internet sales growth.

Mr Philips said of the new operation: “This fresh food offer will be the closest thing on the internet to being in a store and selecting food yourself. Customers do have concerns about buying fresh food online and today we believe we’ve come up with the answer.”

Morrisons focuses on selling fresh food prepared by its own butchers, bakers and fishmongers and the company said the online offering at Morrisons. com will replicate this, enabling for instance, using a virtual butcher and choosing how thickly their steak is cut.

Simon Thompson, managing director for online food, said: “We have spent a lot of time with customers and that journey doesn’t stop here.

“We would love the customers to use the on-site feedback buttons to let us know how we can make our offer even better.”