Supermarket websites failing to deliver the goods

The UK's top supermarkets are struggling to deliver on their online shopping promises, with order fulfilment glitches continuing to cause shoppers major headaches.

Over the last year Asda, Iceland, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose have improved their web performances, but still continue to lag online, according to a study by trade magazine The Grocer.

While some supermarkets fared better than others, all five websites failed in at least one criteria when tested over the busy Easter period.

The findings suggest that back end systems are in a muddle, with some of the supermarkets failing to deliver the requested goods, even though they were available on the supermarket shelves.

Website navigation is improving. Iceland, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose all scored well, with ordering time for 33 items ranging from 18 minutes on Sainsbury's to 60 minutes on Waitrose.

That said, ordering on Sainsbury's site went well until the supermarket delivered the wrong order with a receipt for five times the original cost. Asda was also slated for its poor performance. When compiling the survey, the Grocer's researcher took six attempts to log in, and the best offer for delivery involved a 10 day wait.

Although figures from Jupiter MMXI show half of Europe's surfers visit e-tail sites, online supermarkets are still low on the list.

Tesco.com received visits from 6.6 per cent of the UK online population, while just one per cent visited Sainsbury's, Asda and Waitrose online.