06/12/2010

By Scott Thompson

New findings from research firm ConsumerIntelligence.com show that online grocery shopping is growing in popularity, with 63.9 per cent of British households having shopped in this way. Yet the report also warns supermarkets that they cannot afford to be complacent as 27 per cent of people who have been online grocery shopping say they no longer do so.

When it comes to choosing an online grocery provider, customers believe that the most important factor is price of goods, stated by 53 per cent. This is followed by available products (23 per cent) and customer service (10 per cent). Supermarket brand and company reputation come much lower down the list of priorities, cited by only seven per cent of customers as being the most important consideration. The reasons people give for no longer shopping for groceries online vary, but the major reason cited was people still like to see what they’re buying before they buy it (66 per cent). This was followed by the high cost of delivery (34 per cent), not being happy with substituted products (30 per cent) and best before dates being too short (27 per cent).

The market is currently fairly equally shared across several major supermarket chains, with Tesco just ahead of the rest with almost a third (32 per cent) of online grocery shoppers saying they regularly use the supermarket’s online service. Tesco is followed by Asda (30 per cent), Sainsbury’s (25 per cent), Ocado (24 per cent) and Waitrose Deliver (22 per cent). The research findings show that there are considerable differences in customer experiences across the online supermarkets, with almost half the customers at Ocado (49 per cent) and the newly launched Waitrose Deliver service (47 per cent) having the highest percentage of customers who said they were “extremely satisfied” with the overall experience. Unsurprisingly, when it came to being satisfied by the quality of products offered by online supermarket providers, over half the customers using Ocado (59 per cent) and Waitrose Deliver (56 per cent) were also “extremely satisfied”.

Ian Hughes, managing director at ConsumerIntelligence.com, comments: “The online grocery shopping is booming with more people turning to the convenience that buying your goods online affords. However our findings show that online grocery providers cannot rest on their laurels as there are a number of people who have been turned off online grocery purchases by the high cost of delivery or poor food substitutes. In today’s challenging economic climate, people are still looking for lower prices, with over a third (36 per cent) of online grocery shoppers saying they would switch to another provider offering lower prices. However, low prices must not compromise the quality of the shopping delivered with online customers also saying they would consider switching to another provider if they received goods with little or no shelf life (16 per cent) or goods that were crushed or damaged (15 per cent).”