Here at Tiger Commerce, we always keep a very close watch on Ocado as they have consistently proven themselves to be at the forefront of eCommerce innovation. As the online grocer heads towards its first annual profit and with a new 5 year supply contract in place with Waitrose, Ocado continues to raise the bar in terms of eCommerce excellence.
Its most recent innovation is an Instant Order option which automatically compiles a full basked of items based on a customer’s purchasing history, thereby making it quicker and easier for customers to repeat purchase.
Instant Ordering follows closely on the heels of another service enhancement - Pre Paid delivery. Customers pay £8.99 a month and can have as many deliveries as they want for that price. The big benefit to the customer here is that shoppers can place mulitiple orders each month, including smaller ‘top-ups’ ie basket values from £40 and thereby make significant charges on delivery which can be as high as £5.99 per delivery at peak times. Delivery charges are very emotive for online shoppers and this is a clever move by Ocado to drive customer loyalty.
Ocado was also the first to display ‘use by’ dates on their products, a move which enhances their position as the most reliable online grocer when it comes to product freshness. With its dedicated delivery centre model (as opposed to the delivery from local stores model employed by its competitors), Ocado is also able to guarantee the lowest level of product substitutions and missing items. All of this adds up to a significant point of difference for Ocado in the online grocery market.
These are just a few of a long list of innovations that Ocado have launched since it was founded in 2002. If you want to build an eCommerce website based on excellence, then we strongly recommend you take a look at Ocado.
