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E-commerce expansion aids Sainsbury's

Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - 14:08 by Sarah Collinson

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Supermarket chain Sainsbury's has been able to make significant gains, thanks to a boom in its online shopping platform, which has experienced a 25 per cent increase in sales over the past three months.

Sainsbury's has been upping the amount that it invests in its e-commerce arm and has been reaping the rewards with improved figures and many thousands of happy customers.

Perhaps most significant is Sainsbury's assertion, that its improved online performance, has allowed it to increase the growth rate of its total revenue faster than major competitor,Tesco. An increase of almost 3 per cent was seen across sales, both online and in store.

Sainsbury's issued a statement in which it pointed to consistent service, ease of use and widespread availability of safe shopping online via its own e-commerce platform, as key in ensuring that the rise in sales has been persistent and sustainable.

The chain has been working on improvements to its IT infrastructure and delivery capabilities over many months and earlier in the year it predicted that its online expansion would pick up pace. These latest figures show that it was wise to work hard at streamlining its online experience.

In mid 2009, Sainsbury's added various products to its online grocery store, which extended beyond the remit of standard food shopping. A year later it gave customers the ability to book an order of shopping online and then head to their nearest shop to pick it up, avoiding the crowds and saving on delivery at the same time.

To make sure that every order with Sainsbury's is processed without an issue, it updated its IT management system to allow notifications to be sent out as soon as any problems or setbacks arise, minimising the hassle for the consumer and improving its reputation as a provider of simple, safe shopping online.