Tesco website best for low-sugar fizzy drinks, finds study

Tesco has come top in a ranking of major supermarkets for their offerings of low-sugar fizzy drinks online.

Ahead of the introduction of a new tax on sugary drinks next month, major supermarkets were ranked for the ease with which low-sugar alternatives could be found on their websites.

The websites of Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Ocado, Iceland and Amazon Pantry were given scores based on factors including the number of low-sugar options available and how easy they were to find using the sites’ search functions and filters.

Tesco came top with a score of 129, while Iceland was bottom with 67.

Iceland and Waitrose both got low scores, with the latter earning 83 points, because they offered fewer low-sugar options. These made up 26% and 38% of the supermarkets’ fizzy drinks ranges respectively, compared with Tesco’s 47%.

Iceland and Waitrose’s sites also lacked the facility to filter searches for low-sugar options, according to e-commerce analytics firm E Fundamentals, which compiled the rankings by searching 1,751 fizzy drinks product listings.

Overall, low-sugar options made up less than half of the supermarkets’ fizzy drinks.

Cola was the flavour with the largest ratio of low-sugar product listings, making up 65% of all cola offerings. Lagging behind was lemonade at 32%, traditional flavours at 31% and energy drinks at 26%.

The Soft Drinks Industry Levy comes into force on 6 April and will tax soft drinks that contain 5g of sugar or more per 100ml.

“What’s clear from our platform is that whilst the big retailers might be taking action to limit consumer exposure to sugary drinks in store, there is a lot more they can be doing to make it easier to find low-sugar options online,” said E Fundamentals CEO John Maltman.

“For the soft drinks brands that are looking to limit the amount of sugar in their products, it is absolutely essential that they control how they are represented online and make sure supermarkets are representing them accurately.”