Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Ahead of the Christmas rush, Which? reveals the best and worst online shops as rated by the public.
The consumer body asked more than 10,000 members of the UK public in June about their experience of shopping online over the previous six months.
Which? asked respondents to rate retailers on factors including price, deliveries, quality, and ease of finding products. They were asked to rate their satisfaction with the product/service and how likely they were to recommend this product/service to someone else. From these two ratings, a ‘customer score’ was calculated.
Shoppers placed cosmetics retailer AllBeauty.com at the top of the leaderboard this year (with a consumer score of 87%). They said the site had great deals on cosmetics, a good selection of products, and a quick delivery service.
Appliance retailer AO.com (86%) and cosmetics brand LizEarle.com (85%) – joint winners last year – came second and third respectively.
But for the second year running, telecoms firm EE (56%) came bottom of the table, with some customers criticising its delivery service and its website, which they found hard to navigate.
Which? Editor Richard Headland said: “With more and more of us shopping online, especially in the run-up to Christmas, it seems there’s still a big gap between the best and worst retailers if you’re looking for choice, value and convenience. The best online shops offer competitive prices and a seamless experience, while others need to up their game to avoid letting customers down.”
According to retail research company Verdict Retail, online shopping accounts for 14.8% of total UK retail spending in 2016, and is forecast to reach 18% by 2021.
The tables below reveal the Which? 100 best and worst online shops for 2016.
The top 10 online shops (with customer scores)
1 AllBeauty.com 87%
2 AO.com 86%
3= LizEarle.com 85%
3= Toolstation.com 85%
5 John Lewis.com 84%
6 FeelUnique.com 83%
7= Amazon.co.uk 81%
7= FragranceDirect.co.uk 81%
7= .Lakeland.co.uk 81%
10 BeautyBay.com 80%
The bottom 10 shops (with customer scores)
1= Sainsburys.co.uk 68%
1= SimplyBe.co.uk 68%
1= TescoMobile.com 68%
4= SportsDirect.com 67%
4= WHSmith.co.uk 67%
4= Wickes.co.uk 67%
7 Vodafone.co.uk 66%
8 DIY.com (B&Q) 65%
9 Homebase.co.uk 63%
10 EE.co.uk 56%
