Internet shopping has become one of the most profitable sectors of retail in recent years, with online businesses such as Amazon and eBay continually posting rising profits and expanding consumer bases. Even traditional companies, such as Tesco and Argos, have spent increasing amounts on the online side of their businesses as more and more customers choose to shop from the comfort of their own homes.
Of course, online shopping does have its downsides – the fact that clothes and shoes cannot be tried on before purchase, the wait between paying for your purchases and actually receiving them, and the risk that your order could go missing in the post after being shipped out by the retailer.
Then, obviously, there is the chance that computer error could have an adverse effect upon your online shopping spree.
Ocado, the UK’s most popular online grocer, has apologised to thousands of customers who failed to receive their online orders earlier this week. It put the issue down to an “operational failure” at one of its warehouses, which cancelled the orders of an unspecified amount of consumers.
A spokeswoman for the company has assured angry customers that all those affected by the problem would soon be contacted with a full explanation as to why their order had not arrived at their door at the arranged time. Refunds and compensation will also be offered in appropriate cases, although the process for this is yet to be established.
She said; “An operational issue at our warehouse has caused us to cancel a number of orders.
“All customers whose order has been cancelled will have, or will soon receive, a phone call from Ocado customer service at which point they will be able to re-schedule their order. Customers affected will be compensated.
“We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.”
The spokeswoman for Ocado was keen to highlight that the computer glitch has now been resolved, and that customers can now return to the site as everything is running as normal.
Ocado suffered from falling customer numbers earlier this summer, when the Olympic Games caused problems for 850 delivery vans in and around London. Due to lane closures and higher volumes of traffic, customers often found that their deliveries arrived later than expected – despite the fact that chief executive Tim Steiner modified the satellite navigation systems in the vehicles in an attempt to dodge the worst of the traffic.
However, this seemed to be a trend across internet companies in general, as the Office of National Statistics released figures showing a 6.7 per cent drop in non-store retailing sales between July and August. This also includes mail order businesses, thus making the drop the largest seen in the sector for five years.
While Ocado’s sales grew by 9.9 per cent in the 12 weeks leading up to August 5th totalling £162.6 million, this was actually a significant drop when compared to earlier performance. In the first half, Ocado achieved 12 per cent sales growth, which was expected to increase into summer.
However, Mr Steiner believes that sales have now stabilised, with further growth expected for the remainder of this financial year. He says; “We are pleased our customers’ ordering patterns have returned to normal.”
Do you think online retailers like Ocado are the future of grocery sales, or do you believe that there will always be a market for traditional chains such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s? How do you think Ocado could prove to customers that they are a reliable retailer after a chaotic summer and this further computer glitch – is it a matter of offering money off incentives, or will they have to go further to win back the trust of consumers?
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