Who needs a sandwich wrap when you’ve got a lovely absorbent sanitary towel? Or a bouquet of flowers when there’s a perfectly decent bunch of leeks to enjoy instead?
No, these aren’t the latest TikTok trends (yet), instead they are just a couple of the “completely inappropriate” swaps that have been highlighted in the Which? annual survey of supermarket substitutions.
Each year, the consumer group releases its most recent version of this report, reminding everyone of that hilarious time they got dog treats instead of steak or bananas instead of pizza.
Of course, grocery shopping online is never going to offer the same experience as browsing in-store, where customers can choose their own alternatives to any out-of-stock items on their list.
But when almost a third of online deliveries from the UK’s biggest retailers (29%) includes a swapped item or substitution, shouldn’t they be – well – better at it?
Swap shop
Substitutions are a necessary part of online supermarket shopping, and providing an alternative is normally preferable to simply not fulfilling the order. Funny swaps aside, getting orders right – and managing them when they go wrong – is an important part of winning on online delivery.
This year’s Which? data showed that Asda was the supermarket most likely to offer its online shoppers a replacement product, with almost half (47%) reporting a substitution. It was also one of the worst at choosing an alternative, with shoppers giving its swaps just two stars out of five.
(It’s not the first time Asda has come under fire for sub-standard substitution selection – it was the subject of nearly half of all tweets complaining about inappropriate online grocery subs in 2023.)
Morrisons’ substitutions were equally disappointing, while customers at Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado were much happier on the swap satisfaction front, awarding them all three stars out of five.
So where are they going right? Tesco says that if a shopper has opted in for substitutions, it will always look to provide them with something equal or better than the item they originally ordered.
One Tesco employee told The Grocer that the computer system suggests alternative products for them to choose from if the original item is out of stock. And if that is also unavailable? Or if they think the computer has got it wrong?
“Then we use our common sense.”
Human error or human touch?
Of course, relying on mere humans to get things right is a gamble (even with tech back-up) and mistakes are inevitable. According to our Tesco picker, staff must use their common sense to make a substitution “about 50 times a day”.
Tesco says the vast majority of its online orders, over 97%, are fulfilled exactly as ordered. And while pickers make the ultimate choice, the supermarket continually reviews the logic for its substitutes, using customer feedback to improve its substitution recommendations.
A similarly robust system is followed by Ocado, which believes that its high ‘perfect order’ percentage is part of what helps it win return business and ramp up grocery sales.
The pureplay online retailer uses an algorithm to suggest substitutions, with every recommendation reviewed by a member of the team before being applied. Once in the system, personal shoppers are then able to choose an alternative from the “carefully ordered shortlist” of possible substitution options.
While automation creates these shortlist options, Ocado believes ”the human touch is essential to ensure the most appropriate substitutions for customers”.
Safeguarding is also key, with the algorithm designed to prevent offering substitutions that don’t align with dietary requirements. Here also, Ocado acknowledges that ”having a human in the loop provides an extra layer of reassurance”.
Trust is crucial here, especially for consumers who follow a specific diet or have serious allergies. And with NIQ data showing that almost 13% of all UK grocery sales are now made online, it’s important that supermarkets get this right.
The price of convenience
When things do go wrong, it is easy to say that poor substitutions are the fault of the picker, or the computer system, or the driver dropping them off at the doorstep.
And while people on the receiving end of 20 packets of value ham instead of one joint of gammon will (sometimes) see the funny side, getting substitutions wrong can also have more wide-reaching consequences. Poor substitutions put people off ordering groceries on Deliveroo, with one bad experience “putting users off for good”, and others vowing never to use the service again.
And let’s not forget, retailers are frustrated too. Items are out of stock at the time of picking, not when they were ordered, which leaves little room to anticipate or address any shortfall. Pickers are forced to think on their feet, choosing products they may have no experience of, often wasting valuable time and leaving customers dissatisfied. So what to do?
Asda says it always lets customers know when their order contains a substitution, and they can opt out of receiving any at all.
“We always do our best to ensure that the customer receives a relevant sub if an item is missing, and we have colleagues to ensure that the best substitutions are being made.”
It says its own data shows “the vast majority of substitute items are accepted, and overall customer satisfaction is high”.
Sainsbury’s defence is similarly defiant, saying its “customer satisfaction scores tell us that our substitutions have improved over the last few years”.
With one of the lowest substitution rates in the industry (19%), Ocado says it actively reviews customer feedback to refine its subsutitution selection process, adding that ”much of the feedback we receive is about how few substitutions our customers experience compared to shopping elsewhere”.
Maybe the real issue is that online shoppers are simply more critical of substitutions than those that go instore and just choose something else. And not being able to make those choices is simply the price shoppers pay for convenience. That, and eating quite a lot of value ham.
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