- The Good Housekeeping Institute in the UK reportedly has done a study of British online grocery shopping services and concluded that it takes longer than going to the brick-and-mortar store - 46 minutes for an average online shopping trip, compared to 37 minutes to go the regular store.
Good Housekeeping also reports that none of its orders placed with five different online services in three different areas of the country contained all 26 items asked for - and two deliveries did not make it to the front door at all.
"Internet shopping should be every woman's dream with no queuing at the checkout, no carrying and no need to leave home," said Lindsay Nicholson, Editor-in-Chief of Good Housekeeping magazine. But, she said, "Most supermarkets have failed to perfect online shopping from the customer's point of view, despite the idea having been around for almost a decade."
Waitrose's Ocado service was ranked best. Tesco was criticized for missing key items from orders. Wal-Mart's Asda website was said to be the easiest to use.
- KC's View:
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So, it’s not perfected.
Go figure.
Hell, most retailers haven't perfected the brick-and-mortar experience yet, so it is going some to expect them to have perfected the virtual variety.
The fact remains that whatever the glitches, online grocery shopping will become an ever more important strategic offering for retailers...simply because the consumer population is changing and evolving. Kids graduating from college this year don't really know a world without Amazon.com...and that changes their expectations.
