Quality customer-centred online shopping service (Ocado.com)

Member Name: alliei80

Product:	Ocado.com
Date:	10/02/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, quality of goods, efficient and polite service

Disadvantages: No clubcard points, no loose veg

Colleagues raved about the Ocado service so I thought I would look into it. As a regular shopper at Waitrose I knew the product base would be pretty familiar and signed up to take a better look.

From signing up it was quite a while until I placed my first order as I tend to do my shopping in store rather than online. What I did notice was that I would receive regular emails from Ocado with details of offers or news. It wasn't too much though so didn't feel like they were bombarding me with junk mail. My only disappointment with the offers were that you had to spend quite a lot of money to benefit from them - I suspect that their target audience is not the single person living alone with only one to shop for.

When I did finally decide to do a big monthly shop and take advantage of a voucher that was 15% orders over £60 (maximum discount £15) I was pleasantly surprised to find that the delivery costs were not as bad (either monetary or environmentally) as expected. You can choose slots at certain times that were less pricey and also, very importantly, choose "green" deliveries where the vans are already scheduled to be in your area.

The online site itself is very easy to use - you can either search for the product or browse the categories. Once you have placed your first order the goods ordered are automatically remembered for you for ease of ordering next time (and also so they can send you related special offers). It's very easy to add things to your trolley, change the quantity or remove them. It also alerts you if there is a special deal (such as BOGOF) on the item you've chosen.

When viewing your trolley you can choose picture view, text view or to view by how the item is stored. Another great thing about the Ocado website is that each food and drink product tells you the minimum shelf life.

The only thing I didn't really like about Ocado is that you have to buy prepacked vegetables whereas with the Tesco online service you can buy loose veg and choose the amount you would like. I think this also ups the packaging that is used.

After placing my order I was emailed a summary of it and could choose to amend the order at any point until the cut off point notified to me in the email. The delivery arrived on time (within the allocated slot) and I was very impressed with the friendliness and helpfulness of the driver. He was smartly dressed and polite, offering to carry my delivery to my kitchen if I wished. He checked all the breakable items (such as eggs) were okay and had they not have been could have refunded them immediately through his handheld device - as he could have done had I not been satisfied with any goods received.

All the bags were colour coded as to the type of goods they contained - so freezer goods were in a different colour bag to cupboard goods, etc. The bags were really strong as well, so will be reused many times by me rather than Tesco's thin horrors! Ocado also collect, reuse and recycle their bags so a plus point there too!

Overall I was really pleased with the easy of use and quality of the service (both online and post-order). The only niggle is no clubcard points and no loose veg!

Summary: Great easy to use service with quality products