Web Site Functionality Benchmark 2010: UK Grocers

Forrester evaluated the grocery Web sites of the four largest UK grocers — Asda, Sainsbury's, Tesco, and Waitrose — using our Web Site Functionality Benchmark methodology. The results: Sainsbury's led the pack, but the overall functionality experiences across the retailers earned nowhere-near passing scores. What were common problems? Although they did relatively well with the purchase process criteria, the grocers were missing basics in search and navigation, and merchandising efforts, multichannel options, social tools, and online customer service availability appeared weak. But we did encounter best practices across the four firms in terms of global navigation, post-purchase, and order tracking, for example. In order to help users make better buying decisions and give them strong incentive to buy groceries online, grocery eBusiness and channel professionals should improve basic content, messaging, and functionality; introduce social tools like rating and reviews; as well as develop their merchandising efforts.