Grocery Retail

Checking out the customer

experience in grocery

chattermill.io
Contents

Introduction: the state of play 3

Our methodology 4

Focus 5-8

The ‘Big Four’ 6

Discounters 7

Premium 8

Insights 9 - 19

Online Experience 10 -11

Brand & Service 12 - 13

Logistics & Delivery 14 - 15

Staff & Support 15 - 17

Checkout Experience 18 - 19

Key takeaways 20

2
 Introduction
The state of play
Retail is one of the most competitive markets in
the UK, with brands battling one another for
market share in an environment that does not
stand still. Shoppers have more complex needs
than ever and increasingly expect more for less,
particularly in the grocery sector.
The landscape has changed drastically over the last
10 years: with the success of discounters Aldi and
Lidl at one end of the price spectrum and
Waitrose and M&S Food at the other. Recent US
entrant Whole Foods, now backed by retail titan
Amazon, has entered the fray - in what could be
the start of a new war in which the weapon of
choice will be customer experience.
The grocery sector has already been disrupted by
the success of discounters, but now looks set to be shaken up
by a customer experience revolution.
As the retail environment has changed, the power
of traditional differentiators used by retailers has
been diminished.
With the entry of discounters, supermarkets have
been beaten at their own game - price. This alone
is no longer enough to compete, with retailers
instead turning to customer experience to attract
and retain shoppers whether by developing
services like delivery and click and collect or
launching major new brand marketing campaigns.
Customer experience in grocery is increasingly
complex. There are ever more potential paths to
purchase as grocery moves beyond simple in-store
shopping. As a result, customer journeys are
multiple and varied, presenting a challenge for
customer experience professionals.
As the sum of interactions between your
organisation and your customer equals the
customer experience, it can be defined as how well
your organisation meets their needs. Mastering
customer experience unlocks new opportunities
for building advocacy, loyalty and growth.
Location has also become less important - unless that
location is everywhere. Grocery delivery services have
widened consumer choice, with online only retailers
proving strong competitors to traditional stores.
Furthermore, consumers are embracing online and
omnichannel retail experiences at rapid pace,
demanding the most competitive offerings in terms of
price, quality and expediency regardless of how they
purchase.
3
Our methodology
Quick Definitions
At the heart of this report is a world-first
meta-analysis of customer experience across the Sentiment
banking sector powered by Chattermill's customer Opinions expressed in a piece of customer
feedback analytics AI. feedback

In our analysis, we have evaluated thousands of

customer app reviews containing multiple user Themes
journeys and customer sentiment across data sources Topics mentioned in a piece of customer
and companies. From our experience of working with feedback
partners in the financial sector, we have ranked these
experiences using themes and categories to precisely
gauge their contribution to the impact on customer Net Sentiment
experience. % Positive Mentions - % Negative Mentions

We'll also be sharing a range of examples from

Chattermill clients, showing how data-driven
Mentions per 100 responses
Frequency of theme or sentiment mentions
customer experiences are already giving businesses a
per 100 responses
competitive advantage.

Our methodology for the evaluation, classification and Average Score

aggregation for the research has been compiled Average Review Score per company,
together in the form of an online dashboard available category or platform
for anyone to access. Simply get in touch with us to
find out how to access.

4
Focus
Focus

The Big Four

Together controlling 69.4 % of the grocery retail market, the big four supermarkets are some of the
largest forces in the sector.

Their score not only helps to benchmark performance over time

and across segments and cohorts but also to understand the
drivers behind word of mouth growth when text analytics is
effectively applied to customer feedback.

6
Focus

Discounters

Together controlling 21. % of the grocery retail market, discounters are posing a threat to the Big Four
especially with Aldi and Lidl disrupting the industry and stealing the market share.

The industry challengers Aldi and Lidl collectively added £390m to their sales this
period – that’s half of the entire market’s overall growth for the period with Lidl
remaining Britain’s fastest growing supermarket. Moreover, Co-Op is the second
biggest discounter after Aldi, possessing 6.2% of the market share. Their score
helps to understand better the role customer experience plays in the industry
disruption and market growth.

7
Focus

Premium

Premium grocery retailers control more than 6% of the market share, with Waitrose being the strongest
player in the category and M&S Food losing its market share.

Premium retailers are targeted to a smaller audiences, which are likely to spend
more on the groceries. With their customers ready to pay more, premium
grocery retailers ought to invest more in improving customer experience. After
Whole Foods being acquired by Amazon, the new disruptor in the industry might
emerge. Therefore, supposedly the score of the premium retailers should help to
benchmark the customer experience standards in the industry.

8
Insights
 Insights

Online experience
Net Sentiment by Online Experience
100
80
60
40
20
0
-20
-40
-60
-80
-100

Morrisons
As online continues to be a growth area for grocery retail, a 100

competitive online experience to complement physical stores can help 80

to win customers. 60

On aggregate, discounters narrowly outperform both the Big Four and 40

premium grocers in online experience. Net sentiment for discounters 20

is 0, meaning an even amount of positive and negative feedback, 0

App Layout Ease of use
whereas for the big four this is -2 and for premium retailers -3.
Easy to use. Love the favourites and the
favourites offer options.
• Advanced online products, such as online checkout and I found morrisons the easiest and best
shopping, does not always guarantee a boost in customer online shopping experience.
experience App is very easy to use and we edit our
shopping list as the week progresses.
• Online experience is inconsistent within each market segment.

Top performers for online experience are Morrisons (+69), Lidl (+62) Tesco
and Ocado (+51), with Tesco scoring the lowest net sentiment score 60

of -52. 40
20
0

Users frustrated by unintuitive website and app layouts are the con- -20
-40
tributors to negative sentiment. Stores that perform well such as -60
-80
Morrisons offer easy to navigate websites that rate highly with custom- -100
Bugs Device Ease of use
ers. While the discounters have only limited online offerings, these are Compatibility
well received for their execution and quality mobile apps. The app simply breaks whenever there
is an update
Errors, bugs and device compatibility issues are also significant drivers Screen size issue. Crashes on launch.
of negative sentiment among users across all stores, accounting for S7 Edge.
20% of total responses for online experience. Users complain of
Great app easy to use
regular crashes and glitches on mobile apps.
11
 Insights

Brand & Service

Net Sentiment by Brand
100
80
60
40
20
0
-20
-40
-60
-80
-100

Ocado
As consumer expectations shift and retailers increasingly compete on 30
experience, brand and service are becoming more important in 25

winning market share. 20

15

In our study, premium stores rate most highly in terms of their brand 10
5
and service, which encompasses factors such as their reliability, value 0
and general customer service. On aggregate, their net sentiment is +8, Promotions Refunds Value for
money
which compares to negative scores of -21 and -42 for the discounters
Excellent service,and great money off
and big four respectively. offers and savings

When you get an item that is not right

• Premium stores brands outperform the big four and discounters. they arrange a refund without any hassle.

• Reliability and consistency of service standards are important to Great service, big variety of groceries,
competitive prices!
customers.

Ocado has the highest net sentiment score of +48, followed by Whole Sainsbury’s
Foods (+20). Asda, M&S, Sainsbury’s and Aldi have strongly negative 0

scores, all lower than -40. -20

-40

Major contributors to negative sentiment are poor reliability and value -60

for money, alongside unfriendly policies. Sentiment toward additional -80

services offered by some premium and big four grocers such as -100 Value for Refunds Reliability
money
‘delivery passes’ is divided. Negative sentiment was generated by failure
to deliver on service promises. Over the last few years food prices
gone sky high

They don't give refunds like other

Popular promotions and rewards schemes are a factor that reliably supermarkets do, they give vouchers.
generate positive sentiment. Customers like personalised vouchers
Something missed or substituted 90%
they receive and stores that match others’ promotions. of the time. But a pretty reliable service.

13
Insights

Logistics & Delivery

Net Sentiment by Logistics & Delivery
100
80
60
40
20
0
-20
-40
-60
-80
-100

The majority of grocery retailers now offer a form of online delivery service as customers seek
convenience in busier lifestyles. With more steps involved in the customer journey, managing
experience is complex.

The largest drivers of negative sentiment are missing items, substitutions and issues surrounding
packaging and bags, accounting for over 30% of total mentions and attracting almost universal
criticism from customers across all of the retailers we studied. Late deliveries and timeliness were a
recurring theme at some retailers, accounting for a high volume of negative sentiment.

Customers at big four and premium retailers frequently mentioned friendly delivery drivers,
generating a high volume of positive sentiment, though sentiment at Asda and Sainsbury’s was more
mixed. Ocado and Morrisons, which operate a delivery partnership, scored well across the board,
including for timeliness and low substitution rates. Interestingly, Morissons outperformed Ocado’s
own service by net customer sentiment.

Logistics & Delivery by subcategory

100
80
60
40
20
0
-20
-40
-60
-80
-100
Missing items Packaging Delivery slot General Substitution Delivery Delivery Speed Driver Attitude
Timeliness
15
 Insights

Staff & Support

Net Sentiment by In Store Staff
100
80
60
40
20
0
-20
-40
-60
-80
-100

Staff and support performed rather poorly among all categories M&S
of the grocery retailers, negatively affecting their relationship
with the consumers. 40
30
20
10
0
Support performed equally poorly across all categories: big four, -10
-20
premium and discounter, scoring -50, -55 and -60 in net
-30
-40
-50
sentiment respectively. However, there was a major difference in -60
-70
consumers’ experience with staff where premium and big four -80
Availibility Attitude Helpfulness
scored +3 and +4, while discounters are drastically
underperforming getting -24. Not unusual to spend 15 minutes walking
around looking for someone to help.

Was served by a lovely young man,

• Support is one of the most underperforming categories in service with a smile and nice chat
entire customer experience among all grocery retailers.
The lady on checkouts was amazing, and
• Consumers are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the attitude so helpful to disabled customers.
and professionalism of staff at the discount chains.
Asda
While the staff was found helpful across all grocery chains (an 0

average of +28 net sentiment), lack of the personnel drastically -20

hindered customer experience in premium stores and discounters. -40

M&S particularly experienced the gap: all customers complained -60

on challenge to find help but complimented on staff ’s -80

professionalism once they were finally served. Big Four performs -100
Responsiveness Problem Attitude of
well in ‘availability’ however suffers from poor communication skills Resolution Staff
of its staff. I was offered compensation of vouchers
to spend with them! That is a joke!

In terms of support, Asda is the worst performer among big four. I emailed twice, my husband once
Most of the clients are angry on their troubleshooting technique of - no response

offering a £10 voucher in case of inconvenience. Across all chains, Section leaders clearly not received
adequate training in handling complaints
many customers found the process of refund very inconvenient
and poorly executed. 17
Insights

Checkout experience
Net Sentiment by Checkout Experience

-20

-40

-60

-80

-100

The checkout may be toward the end of a customer journey, but it could lead to the start
of the next. As the last chance to leave a positive impression on the customer, this is a
crucial touchpoint to optimise for retailers.

Net customer sentiment toward the checkout experience is negative at every retailer in
our study. Net sentiment is least negative at premium retailers, which scored -66, whilst the
big four and discounters trailed behind at -83 and -80.

Aldi, Morrisons and Wholefoods performed well relative to other retailers.

Unsurprisingly, long checkout lines are the principal driver of negative sentiment among
customers, while Aldi’s super-fast checkout staff is praised. Customers are also frustrated by
the lack of open checkouts at many stores.

Checkout Experience by subcategory

0

-20

-40

-60

-80

-100
Availability on Open Checkouts Online Checkout Self Service Waiting time

19
Key
Takeaways
Innovations in the grocery retail sector have disrupted the market and raised consumer
expectations. Competing successfully in the grocery sector will increasingly depend on the
quality of customer experience in the future.

The best supermarkets have adopted a data driven, customer-centric approach in all
aspects of their operations and have sought to understand and improve experience
throughout complex and varied customer journeys.

Utilising new technology to its full potential will be essential to success in the new
competitive landscape, and grocery retailers that fail to invest risk falling behind sooner
rather than later.

20
About Chattermill

Chattermill is a leading provider of customer experience and text analytics solutions.

Our platform integrates analytics, topic and sentiment analysis, customer segmentation
and customer experience prioritisation in real-time connected to all your customer
touchpoints to create a single view of the customer.

From optimising touchpoints to sharing customer insights throughout your

organisations, we bring customer sentiment to life.

For more information and insights please contact grocery@chattermill.io or visit our
website chattermill.io/customer_experience_for_grocery.

chattermill.io