Sainsbury's becomes second largest online grocer

The retailer has overtaken Asda and is now positioned behind Tesco following a 20% rise in weekly orders in the last year to 165,000.

A survey of shoppers by Ipsos Mori last month showed Sainsbury’s came out on top in product quality, availability of delivery slots, contact with centre staff, speed of placing an order and customer service.

The survey of nearly 2,000 online shoppers notably showed Asda came second in terms of product quality while Ocado was last in delivery slot availability, customer service and speed of placing an order.

Almost 1,000 Sainsbury’s shoppers, 400 Tesco shoppers, 400 Asda shoppers and 200 Ocado shoppers were surveyed.

Tesco director of internet retailing Ken Towle recently told Retail Week it expects to double its online grocery revenue to £5.5bn in the next five years, as the popularity of internet food shopping grows.

IGD reports that Asda has a £700m annual turnover in online grocery ahead of Ocado at £598m.

Tesco had to apologise to customers at the weekend after orders from its new £30m dark store in Enfield, North London customers complained about drivers repeatedly turning up late. The apologised for making “a small number of mistakes at the start” of its Enfield operations in January.

Sainsbury’s online director Jon Rudoe said: “Thousands of new customers are choosing Sainsburys.co.uk each week because it’s simple to use and like our stores, people are assured of the service they’ll receive.

“We’re proud of our successes so far, but it doesn’t stop here, we’ve got ambitious growth targets which we’ll reach by continuing to deliver the best possible experience for our loyal and new customers.”

The retailer has launched a new entertainment products site and is expanding its general merchandise offer online. Click & Collect is now available from 900 of its stores.

Seperately, Sainsbury’s today launched its Youth Can programme which will see younger members of staff go intolocal communities and talk about careers in retail to “prevent retail snobbery”.

Last November the company’s National Youth Forum - 15 young colleagues who represent the over 40,0000 colleagues under the age of 25 employed by Sainsbury’s - spent a day with senior executives including chief executive Justin King and customer service and colleague director Gwyn Burr devising the plan.