Assignment 1: Looking at the competition
Introduction
This report concentrates on the theme of online supermarkets. In particular, supermarkets in the UK that allow groceries to be bought online. Most of the big name supermarkets are reviewed, but there are a few notable exceptions, like Safeway (
www.safeway.co.uk) and Kwick-Save (
www.kwicksave.co.uk) because although these supermarkets do have websites, they do not offer an online shopping service.
All of the websites reviewed have a number of things in common. Firstly, they are all clearly targeted at a similar audience - adults who know about shopping in supermarkets but are novices when it comes to using computers and the Internet. Some thought has gone into keeping each site as simple and easy to use as possible. All the sites use synonyms and ideas that shoppers will be familiar with. The stores can be browsed by virtual aisles, sections and shelves, and items to be bought are placed into virtual trolleys or baskets, concepts new online shoppers should be immediately comfortable and familiar with.
The Competition
The first site I visited was Iceland (
www.iceland.co.uk). I was immediately impressed with both the design of the site and how easy to use it was. Online help was available to new users should they need it. I was also pleased that I could browse through my nearest ‘virtual’ store without registering, all that I had to supply was a valid postcode. Popup menus were used extensively for navigating around the site and for browsing through products. A JavaScript capable browser will be needed to display these menus. In fact, many of the sites reviewed require a browser that supports both JavaScript and cookies.
The shopping pages on the Iceland site were very easy to get to. Most products had pictures next to their listing, although the pictures were rather small and unclear. There is an option to turn pictures off that will be useful for those users with a low bandwidth connection. Many products also had a link to click on for further information - details like ingredients, nutrients and usage. Special offer products were also clearly indicated with a little icon.
Adding products to the virtual basket just involved typing in the quantity required then pressing a button labelled ‘Add’. The quantity of each product to be added could also be changed by clicking on up/down spin-buttons rather than using the keyboard. To remove a product from the basket, the quantity of the product had to be set to zero, then an update button had to be pressed. A simple remove button or icon might have been a better idea.
The Iceland site also provided a few ideas on simple meals and recipes. A single click would conveniently put all the products necessary to make the meal or recipe into the shopping basket. Iceland mentions on their site that they will change their recipes and special deals often to encourage people to keep visiting the site.
Iceland also allows users to build up a selection of shopping lists to make future purchases easier.
In order to entice people to register, Iceland offer all people who sign up between specified dates free entry into a prize draw. The prize currently on offer is a Sony digital camcorder.
The next site I visited was Tesco (
www.tesco.co.uk). This was a much more busy looking site, with lots of areas to explore, many of them completely unrelated to shopping. Tesco offer an Internet access package and there is a whole tesco.net site acting as a portal to the rest of the Internet.
I can image this site would be daunting to new users because it appears so cluttered, with many adverts and so many areas to visit.
One of the biggest strengths of the Tesco site is the fact that Tesco sell an enormous range of products online, from flowers to electrical products, music to wines. Tesco also offers financial services online including loans, credit cards, mortgages, savings accounts and insurances services.
One problem I had with the site was the fact that registration was required before you could visit the online ordering part of the Tesco site.
The Sainsburys site (
www.sainsburys.co.uk) looked just as cluttered as the Tesco site on the first page. Worse still was the fact the browser reported JavaScript errors. Clicking on some of the links failed to take me to the appropriate page when I was using the university computers. The online store was located at (
www.sainsburystoyou.co.uk). The site allowed the usual browsing by aisles and shelves, but also offered the option of browsing by recipe. A selection of recipes were provided, under the headings of ‘Starters’, ‘Main Courses’, and ‘Quick and Easy’. Various other seasonal recipe headings were also available, like ‘Halloween’.
The store was easy to browse using the browse by ‘aisle and shelves’ option. The products did not have pictures next to them like the other sites, but clicking on an information button would bring up a picture.
The Sainsburys site did have an extensive nutrition and health area that I was impressed with. Details about vitamins and minerals and how to plan a more healthy diet were among the many guides in this part of the site. Many recipes were also featured, but, unlike the Iceland site, there was not a button that could be clicked to put all the ingredients needed straight into the shopping basket.
Sainsburys also has a student’s zone that contains recruitment information for college or university leavers and learning activities for children in primary or secondary schools.
The main navigational menu on the Sainsburys site was very awkward to use. The menu was too big to fit on one screen so it would seem logical to have scrollbars to see the rest of the menu. Whilst the menu bar did have scrollbars on the front page of the site, throughout the rest of the site the scrollbar had disappeared.
Overall, the Sainsburys site has a good selection of products and a wealth of nutritional information, but it suffers from being awkward to use and a little cluttered.
The next site I visited was Waitrose (
www.waitrose.co.uk). The front page was clean and smart. The menu was easy to use and included helpful popup messages when the mouse hovered over the menu options.
The usual recipe and wine guides appeared on the site, but a novel idea was an online invitations page. Invitations could be created then sent out, by email, to all the guests.
The online shopping pages were extremely easy to use. Browsing around the aisles was easy - a simple list box and tree structure design was used that was easier than clicking through menus. Simple icons highlighted products suitable for vegetarians. The site was also very fast and responsive.
Waitrose is another store that offers informational packs to schools through its web site. Many recipes were available, but sadly the recipes did not include a button to add all the necessary ingredients to the basket.
The final online supermarket I visited was Asda (
www.asda.co.uk). The front page looked a little cluttered because of all the adverts, but it was easy to use the navigation tabs at the top of the page to quickly get to the shopping pages. It was also easy to browse the aisles, particularly because each area was colour coded. It was also easy to use the sites virtual shopping basket.
The only weakness that I did find with the Asda site is that clicking on the information button next to a product does not show any new information about that product, instead the information only repeated the product’s name and price. In addition, only a few of the products on the shopping pages have pictures associated with them.
Recommendations
After reviewing many different online supermarkets, I can now offer some recommendations for online supermarket sites.
My first recommendation would be to allow new users to try out the online shopping system without needing to register first. Having to register first may put off some users.
Supermarket sites should try not to have pages that look very busy and cluttered. Many adverts on one page make the page hard to read. There should also be a limit to the number of adverts on the shopping pages. Asda only have a single small promotional advert in the bottom right hand corner of the page, it is unobtrusive and serves a useful purpose so this I think this design is ideal.
Navigation around the store should be simple. All the sites I have looked at allow the user to browse the store by aisle, section then shelve. This is the most logical way to browse a store and is an approach users should be familiar with. The navigation could be by menu - Iceland has a good example - or by a tree like structure - the method used by Waitrose. I personally liked the look of Iceland menu system, but I preferred the tree structure used by Waitrose because it took far fewer clicks and less time to navigate to another aisle and shelf.
The shopping basket feature needs to be easy to use. It should be simple to add, remove and change the quantity of any product very easily. Iceland require the user to enter a quantity of zero to remove a product whilst Asda allows removal of an item by clicking a cross button. I would recommend Asda’s approach because it involves just a single click.
Allowing users to compile shopping lists is a very good idea that most stores have adopted.
Providing extra information about products is something customers would greatly appreciate. The minimum information that should be available is whether the product is suitable for vegetarians and whether the product currently has any special promotions or deals. Some stores go further and provide ingredients and nutritional information about some of their products. Details about how a particular product should be stored or how it may be cooked could also be provided.
Having pictures of products is also a good idea. Some customers might be tempted to buy or at least look at a product if it looks interesting. Users with a slow Internet connection should have an option to turn pictures off.
Have an area of the site devoted to meals and recipes. If the meals and recipes look interesting customers may be tempted to make them. This means there should be button to drop all the ingredients necessary into the shopping basket with just a simple click. Users should also be able to print out recipes with ease; some extra online help may be needed here.
Sainsburys have an extensive nutrition and health area on their site. It is extremely informative and useful. All supermarkets should show they care about the health of their customers; so having a few pages devoted to health and nutritional issues would be a good idea.
The final and most important recommendation I would make is to make sure that people will want to come back to the site regularly. Getting people to come back to a site is often a difficult task, but it is vital they do come back if the site is going to be successful. In the case of online supermarkets, customers are most likely to come back if they find it easy and convenient to buy their shopping online. Therefore, making sure online shopping is easy and convenient must be one of the most important goals for any new online supermarket. Encouraging people to try online shopping for the first time and making their experience pleasurable is also extremely important for building up a customer base. Iceland try to tempt new visitors to register by offering prize draws and this may be a successful way to attract new customers. Offering a few discounts to new customers may also work. If a new online supermarket can find the right methods to attract new customers and can keep existing customers loyal and happy then it will be well on the way to being successful.
There we go!
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