Online grocers have shed the ghost of Christmas past and delivered. Siân Harrington reports
Online grocery retailers appear to have finally learnt from Santa and worked out how to deliver to the right place, at the right time and, on the whole, with the desired goods this Christmas.
The pressure was on, with food retailers predicting record online sales over the festive period. So how did our six food retailers fare in our quarterly online barometer? For the past three years our shoppers have experienced out of stocks, delivery failures and technology nightmares when ordering the list online. This time both Waitrose and Sainsbury managed to deliver all the items on The Grocer 33 list. At Christmas 2002 not one of our shoppers received a full basket.
Our shoppers were asked to place the order on Thursday, December 11, for delivery on Saturday, December 20, in time for Christmas week. As well as the normal list we asked them to order six Christmas specials: a luxury pudding, pack of six Mr Kipling mince pies, a 200g jar of own label cranberry sauce, Paxo sage & onion stuffing, 454g of Brussels sprouts and 275g pack of Quality Street.
Our Waitrose shopper was impressed. The delivery men were friendly and the order bang on time. But he was overjoyed when he discovered Christmas had come early. He received duplicates of Nescafé, Kit Kat, Tetley and Dolmio from the main list as well as for Christmas pudding, mince pies and Paxo - all for free. Another bonus was that the pudding was organic but he was charged for the ordinary version.
Waitrose also fulfilled five of the six specials - Quality Street was only available in the 464g pack size. But despite the great service, Waitrose is just pipped at the post for our star performer accolade because our shopper found ordering frustrating. Even with broadband it took one hour owing to product pictures on every screen. The search function was also clunky.
Our shopper was also unable to secure his desired slot. None were available between December 20 and 27, so he had to take delivery on Friday, December 19.
The surprise was Sainsbury, which has not performed well in our survey to date. The chain walks off with our star performer title thanks to a full basket and great service (see right). It also managed five of the six specials - again Quality Street was only available in larger packs.
Tesco put in a good performance as usual. Ordering was easy and there were no substitutions. However, our shopper was charged for McCain oven chips that were not received and 500g of mushrooms turned into 0.113g when delivered.
The order also arrived 30 minutes early. Luckily the neighbours heard repeated knocking and let in the delivery men. A handwritten apology appeared on the receipt while some items were cheaper on the receipt, much to the shopper’s delight.
Asda deserves a mention after being one of the worst performers in the past. This time the delivery men were friendly and the order on time, with 30 of the items listed and two appropriate substitutions. Goodfella’s pizza was out of stock when ordering. Quality Street was ordered but not delivered while Extra Special mince pies replaced Mr Kipling and, incredibly, Brussels sprouts were unavailable.
Ocado was let down by its delivery which was 15 minutes late but as usual the site “worked like a dream”. While Persil was out of stock, the cost of the order was pushed up by the substitutions of larger sizes of Nescafé and beef mince. The driver did check whether our shopper wanted the larger sizes.
Online grocery retailers appear to have finally learnt from Santa and worked out how to deliver to the right place, at the right time and, on the whole, with the desired goods this Christmas.
The pressure was on, with food retailers predicting record online sales over the festive period. So how did our six food retailers fare in our quarterly online barometer? For the past three years our shoppers have experienced out of stocks, delivery failures and technology nightmares when ordering the list online. This time both Waitrose and Sainsbury managed to deliver all the items on The Grocer 33 list. At Christmas 2002 not one of our shoppers received a full basket.
Our shoppers were asked to place the order on Thursday, December 11, for delivery on Saturday, December 20, in time for Christmas week. As well as the normal list we asked them to order six Christmas specials: a luxury pudding, pack of six Mr Kipling mince pies, a 200g jar of own label cranberry sauce, Paxo sage & onion stuffing, 454g of Brussels sprouts and 275g pack of Quality Street.
Our Waitrose shopper was impressed. The delivery men were friendly and the order bang on time. But he was overjoyed when he discovered Christmas had come early. He received duplicates of Nescafé, Kit Kat, Tetley and Dolmio from the main list as well as for Christmas pudding, mince pies and Paxo - all for free. Another bonus was that the pudding was organic but he was charged for the ordinary version.
Waitrose also fulfilled five of the six specials - Quality Street was only available in the 464g pack size. But despite the great service, Waitrose is just pipped at the post for our star performer accolade because our shopper found ordering frustrating. Even with broadband it took one hour owing to product pictures on every screen. The search function was also clunky.
Our shopper was also unable to secure his desired slot. None were available between December 20 and 27, so he had to take delivery on Friday, December 19.
The surprise was Sainsbury, which has not performed well in our survey to date. The chain walks off with our star performer title thanks to a full basket and great service (see right). It also managed five of the six specials - again Quality Street was only available in larger packs.
Tesco put in a good performance as usual. Ordering was easy and there were no substitutions. However, our shopper was charged for McCain oven chips that were not received and 500g of mushrooms turned into 0.113g when delivered.
The order also arrived 30 minutes early. Luckily the neighbours heard repeated knocking and let in the delivery men. A handwritten apology appeared on the receipt while some items were cheaper on the receipt, much to the shopper’s delight.
Asda deserves a mention after being one of the worst performers in the past. This time the delivery men were friendly and the order on time, with 30 of the items listed and two appropriate substitutions. Goodfella’s pizza was out of stock when ordering. Quality Street was ordered but not delivered while Extra Special mince pies replaced Mr Kipling and, incredibly, Brussels sprouts were unavailable.
Ocado was let down by its delivery which was 15 minutes late but as usual the site “worked like a dream”. While Persil was out of stock, the cost of the order was pushed up by the substitutions of larger sizes of Nescafé and beef mince. The driver did check whether our shopper wanted the larger sizes.
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