High street veteran John Lewis today made a belated drive to expand its e-commerce offerings, launching a web site that sells 5,000 products - ranging from duvets to toasters - as part of a major home-shopping drive.

Developed over the last eight months, johnlewis.com is meant to expand the reach of the store beyond its 26 high street stores and will be followed by home and giftware catalogues in the approach to Christmas. About 1,000 products have been available from the company's web site for the last year.

The 100-year-old partnership will spend £30m over the next four years on the site and may also start shopping service via mobile phones or digital television. A new division, John Lewis Direct, has been set up to oversee the expansion of a business that the group hopes will generate £100m in sales in three to four years' time.

The division's managing director, Murray Hennessy, said John Lewis Direct was a "huge opportunity" for the partnership.

"John Lewis has 26 stores today and believes there is only room for 29 stores in the UK of the type we build. There are many people who know John Lewis and have a high regard for us, but cannot get to a John Lewis store. We can now service everywhere," he said.

Mr Hennessy said johnlewis.com would offer next working day delivery to any part of the UK for a delivery charge of £4.95. Customers would also be able to name a delivery day, have their products gift-wrapped and return goods for free. Orders will be fulfilled from a distribution centre in Birmingham by logistics company iForce. A call centre in Exeter will handle customer queries and take catalogue orders in coming weeks.

In February, John Lewis bought office equipment and software internet retailer buy.com to build up its own e-commerce operation. Waitrose, its supermarket chain, already sells parts of its own product range such as wines and organic food over the internet.