Waitrose offers the best online delivery experience in Lewisham

The densely populated southeast London borough of Lewisham is one of the capital’s most ethnically diverse areas. It’s also one of its less affluent, coming 29th out of 33 in recent research by property brokerage Jefferies James aimed at deciphering London’s poshest boroughs by proportion of ‘prime’ properties.

That plays out in CACI data, where Lewisham overindexes most on the ‘low income living’ demographic (28% vs a national average of 13.3%), though as with most London boroughs, the picture is mixed depending on area. Good transport links, relatively plentiful green space and a growing food and drink scene mean it’s an area on the up.

Lewisham’s London location means it’s well served by all seven retailers – including guests Ocado and Amazon – in our special online shop this week. But it was Waitrose that emerged victorious, with a near-perfect score of 98.

It was the only delivery that arrived without a single item unavailable, substituted or missing. And even though this was our shopper’s first time shopping online with Waitrose, they said that “based on this experience, I would consider using it again”.

Building the basket was “straightforward and generally smooth” and the website “easy to navigate”. The delivery driver “kindly offered to help carry the two trays of products inside”, which he did “carefully” and “neatly” – his “professionalism” making “the delivery experience smooth and pleasant”.

Ocado came second with a creditable 87 points, with just one item unavailable. Indeed, our shopper is a regular with Ocado, largely because “I’m almost guaranteed that there will be no missing items or substitutions”. She found the site “easy to navigate” and appreciated the filters for vegan, gluten-free and similar but said the best thing about the shop was the communication – especially receiving a text message to let her know she was the next stop, narrowing the delivery window to 10 minutes, which she found “really helpful”.

In third place, Sainsbury’s offered a “well designed, intuitive” website with a very efficient search function that made accurate and relevant suggestions “instantly”. The driver was polite and patient but didn’t mention the two substitutions, which was “disappointing”. As a new user to Sainsbury’s our shopper found the experience “less stressful than I imagined”, though a few items “arrived in poor condition”, with one loaf of bread “visibly squashed” and the chicken dippers and wedges “partially thawed”.

Next was Tesco, which had a “user friendly and convenient” website, although the order summary page was deemed “very long” and “required scrolling” meaning our shopper “could have missed some of the products I needed to order”. Standards weren’t high on delivery, with the shopping not arranged helpfully and the driver not informing our shopper that some products were not available – despite being ordered, the chicken dippers and wedges simply did not show.

Despite coming fifth – mainly due to a zero score on availability – Morrisons potentially gained a new customer this week. Our shopper usually uses Sainsbury’s for online orders, but “would choose Morrisons” in future because “I found it to be a much smoother and more straightforward experience overall” with excellent “navigation, delivery and communication”. The driver was “exceptionally friendly, polite and professional”, though our shopper was a little disappointed that one of her unavailable items, the Greek Yoghurt, wasn’t substituted.

Amazon came second-last this week, not helped by two items being unavailable and an interface that, while familiar, “could have been better”, with numerous pages and uses of the ‘back’ button required to browse different products. Our shopper registered surprise at two items being out of stock – “I did not expect that from a large retailer like Amazon” – but was pleased with the delivery process thanks to their order being on time, with timely notifications and a “friendly and professional” delivery driver.

Last place went to Asda, which had three items unavailable, although our shopper was pleased with a website he found “much more appealing and modern compared with other retail sites”. The driver arrived 20 minutes late – though our shopper was notified of the delay – but was “polite and patient” and greeted our shopper “warmly”, although he did not offer to help or assist with unpacking, which our shopper described as the worst aspect of the experience.