Retail Week Indicator has reviewed all areas of a customer’s digital shopping journey. How do the online-only retailers size up?
Amazon was ranked the top pureplay retailer based on its digital capabilities.
Digital capability was assessed across four performance categories: marketing; logistics and customer service; cross-channel; and ecommerce. All retailers were scored against each performance category, as well as their financial performance. The category scores were aggregated to create an overall score per retailer.
Amazon performed particularly well in the logistics and cross-channel categories.
In logistics, Amazon’s comprehensive delivery offer, including same-day, 90-minute, next-day, nominated-day, Saturday and Sunday and evening delivery, helped it rise above pureplay rivals.
Its delivery subscription service Amazon Prime also sets it apart. More than quarter of the British population have an Amazon Prime account and benefit from unlimited next-day deliveries, which helps boost purchasing frequency.
In cross-channel, Amazon stood out for its wide range of click-and-collect options, including collecting from Amazon Lockers, Doddle and the Post Office, and its pioneering use of voice search.
For the overall ranking, pureplay retailers were assessed in the same way as multichannel retailers. However, pureplay retailers were also scored separately, excluding criteria in the cross-channel category that are not relevant for retailers without stores. These results are displayed below.
Position | Retailer | Marketing | Logistics | Cross-channel | Ecommerce | Indicator pureplay score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Amazon | 56.3 | 86.9 | 90.2 | 81.5 | 79.7 |
2 | Asos | 63.2 | 83.7 | 90.2 | 68.8 | 73.9 |
3 | eBay | 62.1 | 63.3 | 47.5 | 67.0 | 63.4 |
4 | Ocado | 58.6 | 81.8 | 42.6 | 48.8 | 56.0 |
5 | AO.com | 47.1 | 62.6 | 49.2 | 55.9 | 55.4 |
6 | Boohoo.com | 64.4 | 56.5 | 67.2 | 44.6 | 54.5 |
7 | Farfetch | 54.0 | 48.2 | 57.4 | 55.0 | 52.8 |
8 | Zalando | 49.4 | 41.5 | 47.5 | 57.0 | 52.5 |
9 | Yoox Net-a-Porter | 49.4 | 61.3 | 37.7 | 52.1 | 52.5 |
10 | N Brown | 48.3 | 60.7 | 60.7 | 48.3 | 51.5 |
11 | Feelunique | 64.4 | 40.9 | 42.6 | 54.6 | 50.4 |
12 | Shop Direct | 50.6 | 54.0 | 47.5 | 49.0 | 50.2 |
13 | Childrensalon | 66.7 | 39.6 | 29.5 | 48.7 | 48.7 |
14 | Made.com | 51.7 | 55.0 | 44.3 | 45.9 | 47.9 |
15 | Lovehoney | 39.1 | 51.4 | 23.0 | 49.5 | 47.2 |
16 | Victoria Plum | 40.2 | 62.0 | 13.1 | 42.9 | 44.6 |
17 | Birchbox | 58.6 | 26.2 | 32.8 | 46.1 | 44.6 |
18 | Gymshark | 55.2 | 43.5 | 21.3 | 32.0 | 43.1 |
19 | The Hut Group | 51.7 | 52.1 | 13.1 | 42.9 | 43.0 |
20 | QVC | 40.2 | 27.5 | 37.7 | 49.8 | 42.9 |
21 | Amara | 42.5 | 56.5 | 24.6 | 41.5 | 42.3 |
22 | Notonthehighstreet.com | 33.3 | 33.2 | 6.6 | 57.9 | 41.7 |
23 | MandM Direct | 46.0 | 45.4 | 21.3 | 39.9 | 41.4 |
24 | Moonpig | 50.6 | 38.7 | 24.6 | 37.8 | 39.1 |
25 | Woolovers | 40.9 | 39.0 | 41.0 | 37.7 | 36.5 |
26 | Houseology | 56.3 | 37.7 | 6.6 | 36.6 | 35.7 |
27 | Allbeauty | 48.3 | 44.7 | 9.8 | 32.8 | 35.5 |
28 | Finery | 44.8 | 33.9 | 13.1 | 34.1 | 32.7 |
29 | Eve Sleep | 31.0 | 50.5 | 18.0 | 26.5 | 32.4 |
30 | BrandAlley | 54.0 | 22.4 | 13.1 | 31.6 | 32.3 |
31 | SecretSales | 50.6 | 19.2 | 31.1 | 31.6 | 30.5 |
32 | SilkFred | 49.4 | 21.7 | 13.1 | 30.8 | 27.8 |
33 | PetsPyjamas | 39.1 | 19.8 | 6.6 | 33.8 | 27.1 |
34 | Green Man Gaming | 35.6 | 14.7 | 0.0 | 35.7 | 26.5 |
All scoring runs from 0 to 100, with 100 being the maximum score.
To understand how Retail Week measured retailers’ digital capabilities, please read the methodology.