>>ocado impresses but online services still have their problems
The Easter bunny was not the only one delivering chocolate eggs last weekend. In The Grocer’s quarterly online shopping basket survey our Ocado shopper was delighted to find an enormous Cadbury’s Mini Eggs Easter egg nestling within his delivery.
And this was not the only free gift. As a first-time customer, he also found himself in receipt of an Ocado-branded apron. Just as well, I understand, that he is not only a chocoholic but also a dab hand in the kitchen.
With service that was “second to none”, Ocado is yet again one of the top performers (see pp4 and 37). Indeed, our shopper said he did not expect to find this level of service in the UK. And this time its pricing was more competitive than on previous occasions, with excellent deals on wine and fresh produce. It seems service no longer comes at a high price.
Ocado says it is making 18,000 deliveries a week (£90m in annualised sales) and that it is the fastest-growing retail business in the UK, growing 300% last year and currently expanding 5% week-on-week. It aims to be profitable later this year.
So does Sainsbury, which has dumped its depot model to concentrate on store picking. Meanwhile, Asda is rolling out its service after a period of retrenchment while global online leader Tesco is sure to unveil more headline-grabbing figures for its dot.com operation when it announces its annual results next Tuesday.
So has online grocery shopping finally come of age? Well, our survey shows there is clearly more to be done to entice new customers. Time and again we hear that site navigation is an issue, even for those with hi-spec PCs and internet connections. And availability of delivery slots is also a problem at busy times of the year. More worryingly, we are increasingly finding use-by dates that are the next day, or even worse, have passed. These are still challenges that need to be met if retailers are to persuade more customers to shop online.
But stock availability, delivery time, substitutions and, most notably, service have all vastly improved over the past year. Supermarkets may finally be getting it right. Now all they need to do is turn it into money while overcoming the new problems they have created - online pickers clogging up supermarket aisles and leaving gaps on shelves.
online has work to do
The Easter bunny was not the only one delivering chocolate eggs last weekend. In The Grocer’s quarterly online shopping basket survey our Ocado shopper was delighted to find an enormous Cadbury’s Mini Eggs Easter egg nestling within his delivery.
And this was not the only free gift. As a first-time customer, he also found himself in receipt of an Ocado-branded apron. Just as well, I understand, that he is not only a chocoholic but also a dab hand in the kitchen.
With service that was “second to none”, Ocado is yet again one of the top performers (see pp4 and 37). Indeed, our shopper said he did not expect to find this level of service in the UK. And this time its pricing was more competitive than on previous occasions, with excellent deals on wine and fresh produce. It seems service no longer comes at a high price.
Ocado says it is making 18,000 deliveries a week (£90m in annualised sales) and that it is the fastest-growing retail business in the UK, growing 300% last year and currently expanding 5% week-on-week. It aims to be profitable later this year.
So does Sainsbury, which has dumped its depot model to concentrate on store picking. Meanwhile, Asda is rolling out its service after a period of retrenchment while global online leader Tesco is sure to unveil more headline-grabbing figures for its dot.com operation when it announces its annual results next Tuesday.
So has online grocery shopping finally come of age? Well, our survey shows there is clearly more to be done to entice new customers. Time and again we hear that site navigation is an issue, even for those with hi-spec PCs and internet connections. And availability of delivery slots is also a problem at busy times of the year. More worryingly, we are increasingly finding use-by dates that are the next day, or even worse, have passed. These are still challenges that need to be met if retailers are to persuade more customers to shop online.
But stock availability, delivery time, substitutions and, most notably, service have all vastly improved over the past year. Supermarkets may finally be getting it right. Now all they need to do is turn it into money while overcoming the new problems they have created - online pickers clogging up supermarket aisles and leaving gaps on shelves.
online has work to do
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