In its ‘Modern Waitrose’ strategy, the upmarket grocer set itself the goal of being “brilliant online”.

But a quick scan of its website shows it is lacking in many of the capabilities seen as standard by its grocery rivals – not least by sister chain John Lewis, which is investing heavily in its multichannel prowess.

Unlike John Lewis, Waitrose fails to offer guest checkout, which makes shopping quick and easy for first-time or infrequent customers, has an inferior level of personalisation and lags behind in connecting online and offline shopping.

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John Lewis has ploughed £500m in its online shopping service over the three years to 2018 and with ecommerce expected to overtake store sales next year – online currently accounts for 45% of overall sales – it’s plain to see why. 

That investment includes its £40m relaunched website, which has yielded noticeable results, including enhanced search and wish-list functions, and more “inspirational” content.

It has also focused on creating a more seamless shopping experience across devices and has invested in improving systems, forward planning, and analysis of shoppers and their habits, as well as state-of-the-art warehousing.

Personalisation has been an area of focus at both John Lewis and Waitrose but the department store leads the field here with recommendations based on a customer’s browsing and purchasing history and other customers’ purchases. Similar recommendations are not made by Waitrose.

App-less performance

Perhaps the most glaring omission from Waitrose’s multichannel offer is the lack of a transactional app.

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Waitrose Food magazine app

Despite nearly 60% of Waitrose’s customers now accessing its site via a mobile or tablet, the grocer has yet to invest in a transactional app, unlike John Lewis and the big four grocers.

Premium online supermarket Ocado, which stocks Waitrose products, not only has a transactional app but one that integrates with Amazon’s Alexa, while discounter Aldi, which only sells wine online, has an app just for that.

There is, however, a Waitrose Food magazine app, a Quick Check scan as you shop app and there was even an app for the now defunct Pick Your Own Offers loyalty scheme.

This makes Waitrose’s ecommerce offer appear splintered compared to John Lewis’ more seamless experience.

The partnership’s strategic report notes that shopping habits are evolving rapidly and changes in technology are fast paced. It adds: “It is important that the partnership monitors and reacts quickly in order to main our competitive advantage.”

This is has led to the creation of pan-partnership functions, mostly notably across IT.

With so much multichannel knowledge and experience at John Lewis, Waitrose has everything to gain.

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