UK Grocery Retail Web Site Design, 2008

As part of a larger analysis of 12 firms across four industries, Forrester applied its Web Site Review methodology to the Web sites of the UK's top three grocery retailers: Sainsbury's, Tesco, and ASDA. As a group, the grocery retail sites received the lowest average score compared with sites in the other industries we reviewed. Sainsbury's ranked highest of the grocery retail sites but did not receive an overall passing grade, while ASDA ranked the lowest of all 12 sites reviewed. There were usability problems on each site, but our analysis also uncovered a number of good practices. For example, Sainsbury's placed key functionality prominently on the page, Tesco made it clear on its home page that users could complete their goals, and ASDA exposed subcategories on its home page. To improve Web site experiences, customer experience professionals should evaluate their sites to uncover usability problems, make the business case for improvements, and use personas to support design decisions.