Some 600,000 consumers buy groceries online, but many often find the experience frustrating, suggests new research in the UK
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The UK supermarkets have worked hard to make their website shopping services easier to navigate, but customers often find they cannot buy even the most basic items such as bread or baked beans because they are out of stock. Inconvenient or unreliable delivery times are also hampering the enjoyment of consumers shopping online, suggests a survey carried out by retail weekly The Grocer.
Convenience is the major selling point of online shopping, but it seems many supermarket websites are failing to match up to the convenience of shopping in-store. Researchers from The Grocer sampled sites operated by Asda, Sainsbury, Waitrose, Iceland and Tesco.
Asda came off worse, as the system crashed several times and the shopper eventually resorted to a helpline. The web-ordering part of the Sainsbury sample went smoothly – but the wrong order arrived. When the order finally arrived, several substitutions had been made. One substituted product was part of a BOGOF deal (buy one, get one free), but the second item had not been delivered.
Waitrose, Iceland and Tesco performed better, but still left the customers with gripes. Delivery errors and unsatisfactory substitutions for out-of-stock products featured large among the complaints about all sites tested.
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By GlobalDataAlthough consumers are gradually latching on to online shopping sites, basic service flaws are evidently holding back the growth of the area.
