Update: Best supermarket for online grocery shopping – a comparison

Time to see how the online supermarket shopping world has changed. I looked at Waitrose, Ocado, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda. I know that Iceland delivers, but I find that their range is limited, so I am not including them.

I evaluated the supermarkets on the following and in each category, the top supermarket comes in at position 1. Of course, one position 1 doesn’t mean everything is fantastic, so my top supermarket is the one that has the highest number of 1s and 2s, and this time we have joint winners: Ocado and Tesco, but remember if you want quality food, go to Waitrose, but be ready to pay more… it’s really up to you, but I hope that my research will help you.

Categories evaluated on were delivery charges, minimum spend, delivery slots, Click and Collect, delivery times, number of products, cheap delivery packages, first order incentives, loyalty points, customer service and online experience.

In this evaluation, Sainsbury’s gets the pole position as they have one hour delivery slots, minimum spend of £25 for shopping and £15 off first £80+ order.

Prices

Again Asda came in cheapest for 21 items which included staples such as cornflakes, fruit and tea and coffee. Although Asda came in top, other supermarkets will match brand name product prices and shops like Ocado may seem pricey, but they will match Tesco prices, so that’s worth considering. I used the Mysupermarket.com app to compare prices.

These are the results of the comparison and Asda comes out top:

1. Do you offer Click and Collect?

1. Waitrose: Free Click and Collect for orders of £30 and over, £2 charge for under that amount.
2. Asda: We do offer Click and Collect
2. Tesco: Yes, we do offer Click and Collect service.
2. Ocado: Yes, we offer Click and Collect.
3. Sainsbury’s: Yes, however not all Sainburys stores offer Click and Collect service.
4. Morrisons: We do not provide a click and collect service.

2. Please can you give details of your delivery charges

Free is free, so Waitrose and Ocado win here!

1. Waitrose: We do not charge for delivery, but check out the minimum order value below!
1. Ocado: No delivery charge with SmartPass membership, free delivery without membership for orders over £75, a minimum charge of £2.99 and a maximum of £6.99 for orders under £75.
2. Sainsbury’s: Delivery charged vary in price. For order under £40 the delivery charge is £7. For orders over £40 customer can choose a delivery slot for as cheap as £0.50 (depends on availability of the slots).
3. Morrisons: Our delivery charges range from 99p to £6, but do vary depending on the time of day you choose. You can check how much you’ll be charged for delivery when selecting your one hour delivery slot on our booking page found on the webshop.
4. Tesco: Various plans that have free delivery on most days, charge for same-day delivery or when you’re not on the plan is £2.
5. Asda: It is up to £5.50, depending on the time.

3. Please can you give details of your minimum spend

1. Sainsbury’s: Minimum spend is £25, but delivery is £7 for that!
2. Morrisons: The minimum spend for an online order is £40.
2. Tesco: For groceries, at final checkout your order will need to total £40 or more.
2. Ocado: You can place an order with a basket of £40+.
2. Asda: £40 is the minimum needed.
3. Waitrose: We do ask that a minimum purchase of £60 is made in order to qualify for home delivery.

4. Please give details of delivery slots – are they one or two hour

1. Sainsbury’s: One hour slots. For example 12:30 – 13:30 and 12:00 – 13:00.
1. Morrisons: We offer one hour slots.
1. Waitrose: Our delivery slots are one hour.
1. Ocado: One hour slots.
2. Tesco: There are one hour slots for regular delivery, two hour slots for same-day delivery.
3. Asda: Two hour slots.

5. What delivery times do you offer

Ocado and Morrisons have the latest and earliest delivery slots.

1. Ocado: We deliver any time between 5.30am and 11.30pm, you’ll see all slots when clicking on Book a Delivery.
1. Morrisons: Apart from regular one hour slots, the earliest ones are 5.30am and the latest ones till 11.30pm.
2. Asda: The groceries can be delivered anytime between 6am and 11pm.
3. Sainsbury’s: Deliveries can be booked from 7am – 11pm. (slots are subject to availability)
4. Waitrose: Our delivery slots range from 6am – 9pm, although this sometimes varies depending on the delivery branch.
5. Tesco: From 10am to 10pm.

6. How many products do you offer online

1. Tesco: A wide range, usually the same products they have in the store.
2. Asda: A wide range, no specific number.
3. Ocado: A wide range.
4. Morrisons: Over 20.000 products.
5. Sainsbury’s: The total amount of products offered online is constantly changing. Online service offers all of the products available at the store. Products available on the website can vary depending on the delivery address and the store that delivers to that area.
6. Waitrose: We stock approximately between 2000 – 4000 products, which vary depending on the time of year and the branch which is conducting the delivery, as we try and ensure our branches stock products according to local needs, and our deliveries do not come from a central depot, but a branch local to the delivery address.

7. What cheap delivery packages do you offer

1. Sainsbury’s: They offer a delivery pass. This allows customers to book deliveries without a delivery charge. Those are the midweek pass (from £3.33/month) and anytime pass (from £6.67/month).
2. Tesco: They offer a Delivery Saver Plan, that starts at £3.49 per month for a 6-month contract.
3. Morrisons: There is a Midweek Pass that enables customers to have orders on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with no charge and offer a monthly (£5), six-monthly (£20) and yearly pass (£35). Also, they offer an “anytime pass” which is for deliveries every day of the week and it costs monthly (£8), six-monthly (£40) and yearly (£65).
4. Asda: Many plans on offer, starting at £5 per month.
5. Waitrose: when shopping in-store, if you spend less than £50, your shopping will be delivered to your home for £5, or it costs £3 if your shop costs over £50.
6. Ocado: We offer our Smart Pass scheme, starting at £8.33 per month for Anytime delivery or £5.83 per month for Midweek.

8. What first order incentives do you offer

1. Waitrose: £100 total discount off the first five shops, spread out in £20 vouchers.
2. Sainsbury’s: We offer 1st shopper money off coupons. Currently, we are offering £18 off your first £80+ online order.
3. Ocado: 30% off first grocery shop, free delivery for 3 months.
4. Tesco: first month of delivery service plan free.
5. Asda: Could not find info.
5. Morrisons: Could not find info.

9. Do you offer loyalty points

1. Morrisons: They have a loyalty card, the “More card” and you can register for it on their website. You can collect points while shopping and after 5000 points you get a £5 voucher. They also have an app!
2. Sainsbury’s: As we are partnered with Nectar. Customer can collect Nectar points through shopping online.
2. Tesco: There is a Clubcard loyalty scheme with various prize vouchers available.
2. Waitrose: Our loyalty card, the myWaitrose card is not a points-based reward card but an instant benefits card, offering our customers benefits upon receiving their card instead of waiting until they accrue points. These offers range from free tea or coffee every time our customers shop with us to 20% off fish on Fridays or steak on Saturdays. We also offer our customers exclusive offers off Waitrose cookery school, dry cleaning and free entry to our myWaitrose competitions.
3. Ocado: SmartPass scheme offers 10% off on certain brands, samples, gifts, etc.
4. Asda: Loyalty cashback credit card, 1% cashback on all Asda spend.

10. Experience/customer support

1. Ocado: I would rank this one first, since you can use a wonderful thing called live chat, an agent was quickly online and answering all of my questions.
2. Morrisons: Very helpful staff, also information can be found on their website. They have a lot of products available online and the vouchers are a good incentive.
3. Waitrose: Got a reply quickly via email, with all the questions answered, so that made inquiry a lot easier. They seem to have a vast range of services which is great.
4. Sainsbury’s: Also got a reply quickly via email, with all the questions answered, very pleased. They offer a lot of services and people are generally happy with the service.
5. Tesco: They answered some of my questions, other information I had to search on their website. Did not like that, but people’s impressions regarding their delivery service are very good.
6. Asda: Did not reply to an email, which was not very professional, but they do have a very good website where you can get all the answers. Also, a lot of services that are offered by others, are not available with Asda.

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