A new report from digital design and development firm Fluid Inc and Wells Fargo concludes that FreshDirect LLC earned the highest marks of any online grocery surveyed, beating out AmazonFresh and Safeway, according to internetretailer.com.
Fluid bought nearly $1,000 worth of groceries, in two separate orders from each company. The results were ranked based on a number of criteria: user experience, grocery-centric design, personalization and reorder, content and features, selection, deliver and pickup options, and mobile optimization.
Out of all the e-grocers listed, only FreshDirect was given a 5 score, meaning "significantly exceed expectations."
Tied for second place was Safeway, and Google Shopping Express, which both "met expectations."
AmazonFresh got the next highest score, while Wal-Mart To Go, Peapod, Harris Teeter and Whole Shopper, a single store test from Whole Foods, followed right after.
The authors of the study also reportedly concluded that Amazon.com was not as successful with its grocery delivery business as with its other e-commerce departments. They said that although the quality of the groceries was good, they were dissatisfied with the lack of details given about AmazonFresh's offerings.
"Grocery shopping sites should be designed for, well, grocery shopping," the report states. "Yet none of the experiences did much to accommodate that paradigm, in our view. Shopping for a meal or week’s worth of groceries is different than buying a shirt.”"
While this survey isn’t by any stretch of the imagination to be considered comprehensive, it is interesting to see the stratification that is going on between these online grocers. Inevitably, savvy online shoppers will do the same thing that the Fluid firm has. The only thing which has so far impeded comparison shopping between e-grocers is their lack of overlap. Right now all of them are limited in their regional availability, but as these pilot programs get rolled out nationwide, competition will heat up.
Who will end up on top? We can’t wait to find out!
FreshDirect LLC
