Argos has narrowly trumped Tesco to top the Digital Capability Index (DCI), a new ranking by Retail Week and The Grocer of 65 leading high street retailers based on how strongly their shopping features match consumer demands.
The everything retailer, one of the pioneers of omnichannel shopping, had the most features that matched what consumers say they want when shopping both in-store and online.
Argos – which is set to launch a marketplace to offer “an even wider range of products” as part of a multi-year transformation plan – beat Tesco to the top ranking of the index.
“This is brilliant recognition of our ongoing work to transform Argos – doubling down on fantastic products, at great value, with unforgettable ease and speed. This is what drives us every day,” said Graham Biggart, MD at Argos.
“Over the last year we’ve really invested to make our shopping experience fast and simple, and it’s brilliant to see people respond so positively. With over a billion website visits each year and a brand people trust, we’re excited to keep improving and investing with more products, more convenience and even better value for everyone.”
Tesco top of the supermarkets
Tesco was the highest-ranking grocer. Britain’s largest retailer – and owner of the country’s biggest loyalty scheme Clubcard, with 24 million members and used in over 80% of Tesco transactions – has long been an innovator, rolling out features like its own rapid delivery service Whoosh, a membership scheme for shoppers to save on online delivery and a marketplace online where consumers can order non-grocery products alongside their weekly shop.
Seven of the major grocers appear in the top 20 of the DCI of all retailers. Some of those grocers perform well across all metrics, with options like self-checkout machines and scan & shop options becoming the industry standard. The placement of others is based on particular strengths in certain areas.
Sainsbury’s – which The Grocer revealed last month is to make a raft of changes across its technology and data, store leadership and Argos teams to support the next stage of the supermarket’s Next Level strategy – ranks fifth among all retailers on its digital capability. The supermarket trumped Tesco on customer experience and communication, providing more channels of contact, better aligned to the ways shoppers want to talk.
Sainsbury’s and Waitrose scored joint-highest with Tesco in personalisation, the latter last month announcing a head office shake-up to grow the business in areas including personalisation capabilities and online.
Lidl and Co-op scored highly on customer communication, thanks in part to the ability for customers to contact them by phone, which 45% of shoppers say is the single most important service feature. Marks & Spencer and Iceland outperform rivals due to the multitude of payment options they provide for customers.
Adidas and Ikea round out the top five.
Argos – which had been an acquisition target of Beijing-based retailer JD.com, before late-stage talks collapsed less than 24 hours after they were revealed in September – offers the most sophisticated shopping operation of high street retailers according to the DCI, with customers able to opt for same-day delivery, still something of a rarity among high street brands. It had the most-visited site of any of the retailers tracked in the Index, according to Similarweb data.
Argos was also one of just two retailers, along with parent brand Sainsbury’s, that openly advertises British Sign Language (BSL) as a customer service option. The data was collected in October and November last year, so also does not reflect Argos’ recent decision to roll out a marketplace, which also would have increased its score.
What is the Digital Capability Index?
The new ranking, jointly assembled by Retail Week and The Grocer, combines research on capabilities like returns options, advertised delivery speeds and payment functions with a representative survey of 2,000 British adults by polling firm Find Out Now.
Each of these features has been divided into one of five sections* and then weighted based on how strongly consumers say they valued it during the survey. This ultimately leaves each brand with a final score determining its place in the ranking. Instead of being scored on the order fulfilment category, which contains features like click & collect and the ability to return online products in-store, the 10 supermarkets tracked were instead scored on a special grocery category, tracking features like scan & shop and advertised online delivery windows.
Data on website and app usage, as well as engagement, provided by digital analytics firm Similarweb has also been used to inform the ranking.
The DCI is not a measure of digital strength, but of how much each brand’s advertised capabilities line up with what consumers say their priorities are.
As revealed earlier this year, consumers are strong advocates for loyalty schemes, strongly benefiting retailers like Tesco that offer personalised discounts across both their online sites and network of supermarkets.
In addition to the ranking, the index showed a mismatch between consumer expectations and what brands can realistically deliver. In the order fulfilment section, the survey showed the most in-demand feature was free online returns, penalising brands like fashion retailers, given the economics of free returns have proved increasingly difficult to achieve.
A lot of these expectations have arguably been set by the UK’s leading online retailer Amazon, which does not feature in the Index. Only brands with a branded physical store network have been included.
The survey also showed that whether brands offered generative AI features was not a priority at all for shoppers. For example, just one in 100 British adults say a chatbot that can advise them on products is important to them when doing their grocery shopping. This means the handful of brands that have rolled out their own customer-facing generative AI features do not add much to their final score.
*The five sections are ‘order fulfilment’ (or ‘grocery’ for supermarkets), ‘checkout and payment’, ‘customer service and experience’, ‘personalisation’ and ‘web traffic’ for the data provided by Similarweb.
The full results, methodology and report, including the score and ranking of the top 30 retailers, can be found here.
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