Grocery retailers have pulled up their Christmas stockings and put in their best performance to date in The Grocer’s quarterly online shopping survey.
Sainsbury and Waitrose both succeeded in delivering a full basket on time and with no mistakes, at a cost of £39.03 and £42.42 respectively.
Iceland gave its best performance since we began our survey three years ago while Tesco, Ocado and Asda had just one out of stock or non-delivered product each.
In comparison, the 2002 festive period was dogged with payment errors, out of stocks and delivery problems and none of our mystery shoppers received a full basket.
Our shoppers ordered on Thursday December 11 for delivery on Saturday December 20 in time for Christmas.
As well as ordering the items on our weekly The Grocer 33 shopping list, they were asked to order six festive specials including a luxury pudding, Mr Kipling mince pies and Brussels sprouts.
Sainsbury has seen the greatest improvement overall. It has not performed well in our survey to date and was dubbed Scrooge in our report on Christmas 2002, owing to a series of mistakes including an overcharge of £14.
This time our shopper found ordering seamless, received the delivery slot she desired and found the deliveryman friendly and courteous.
Head of Sainsbury’s Online Toby Anderson said service had been at the heart of his strategy since joining in September.
“We are very pleased to have done well in the survey but I don’t believe it is an isolated incident.
“We have been focusing on giving great service, especially over holidays, and have put more planning and training into stores and into our colleagues in the business,” he said.
While he could not reveal figures in advance of Monday’s trading statement, Anderson said it had been a good year for the online operation. “I am particularly pleased with the customer satisfaction levels we have seen,” he said.
Tesco has already said it achieved more sales in December than for the whole of 1999, making a delivery every two seconds during the busiest period. Together with Ocado, it has been the most consistent performer in The Grocer 33 Online barometer.
The main issue this Christmas was popularity. No slots were available between December 20-27 at Waitrose while Saturday 20 was unavailable at Asda. At Iceland our shopper had to wait until December 15 before she could opt for a slot on the 20th.
Siân Harrington
Sainsbury and Waitrose both succeeded in delivering a full basket on time and with no mistakes, at a cost of £39.03 and £42.42 respectively.
Iceland gave its best performance since we began our survey three years ago while Tesco, Ocado and Asda had just one out of stock or non-delivered product each.
In comparison, the 2002 festive period was dogged with payment errors, out of stocks and delivery problems and none of our mystery shoppers received a full basket.
Our shoppers ordered on Thursday December 11 for delivery on Saturday December 20 in time for Christmas.
As well as ordering the items on our weekly The Grocer 33 shopping list, they were asked to order six festive specials including a luxury pudding, Mr Kipling mince pies and Brussels sprouts.
Sainsbury has seen the greatest improvement overall. It has not performed well in our survey to date and was dubbed Scrooge in our report on Christmas 2002, owing to a series of mistakes including an overcharge of £14.
This time our shopper found ordering seamless, received the delivery slot she desired and found the deliveryman friendly and courteous.
Head of Sainsbury’s Online Toby Anderson said service had been at the heart of his strategy since joining in September.
“We are very pleased to have done well in the survey but I don’t believe it is an isolated incident.
“We have been focusing on giving great service, especially over holidays, and have put more planning and training into stores and into our colleagues in the business,” he said.
While he could not reveal figures in advance of Monday’s trading statement, Anderson said it had been a good year for the online operation. “I am particularly pleased with the customer satisfaction levels we have seen,” he said.
Tesco has already said it achieved more sales in December than for the whole of 1999, making a delivery every two seconds during the busiest period. Together with Ocado, it has been the most consistent performer in The Grocer 33 Online barometer.
The main issue this Christmas was popularity. No slots were available between December 20-27 at Waitrose while Saturday 20 was unavailable at Asda. At Iceland our shopper had to wait until December 15 before she could opt for a slot on the 20th.
Siân Harrington
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