Waitrose is raising the contactless payment limit at its Wells supermarket from £30 to £45 to help customers minimise the need for contact while shopping.

The retailer has already worked with its payment provider to test the change in ten branches and from today (April 2) all shoppers with a contactless payment card will be able to make purchases up to £45 without the need to enter their pin number.

The move is part of a string of measures introduced by the retailer to ensure social distancing can be maintained while shopping.

Waitrose has already introduced social distancing measures to protect its customers and staff, including limiting the number of customers in its shops and introducing two-metre marshals to ensure that social distancing is followed as customers queue up.

Matt Clifton, partner and head of customer checkout and payment for the John Lewis Partnership of which Waitrose is a part, said: "Our customers are telling us that they want the minimum number of touchpoints possible in our shops at the moment.

"With this in mind we're quickly increasing the maximum contactless payment to £45."