Online grocery services compared

Monday, October 1, 2012 - 13:14 by Paul Tissington

In a report from the Guardian, a number of the UK's top supermarkets which offer direct home delivery of their products via shopping online, have been compared.

With the online grocery market really heating up, it certainly seems to make sense for consumers to weigh up their options and decide which company will give them the best deal overall.

When it comes to delivery, Waitrose is currently leading the pack, thanks to its free service which will let you book a deliver spot at any time of day, without charging you a penny.

You will get charged by every other retailer out there, with Tesco and Asda always requiring that you pay a fee, no matter what time of the day you want to have your shopping delivered.

Ocado does give free delivery to those who are happy to receive items after 10pm each night, while those who outlay 100 or more with Sainsbury's, can get free delivery on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Sainsbury's and Ocado allow customers to book for delivery within a 1 hour time frame, which means you can be pretty certain of when products will arrive. The other retailers require that you book a two hour slot, which gives you more waiting time to handle.

For delivery convenience, Ocado wins out, thanks to the fact that you can get a delivery at any time between 6am and 11:30pm every day of the week, with most other retailers operating between 8am and 10pm.

Asda has the second lowest minimum spend if you want to get products delivered after completing safe shopping online, with customers required to pay at least 25. Ocado has a 40 minimum, while Sainsbury's has no minimum, but will up the cost of delivery if you do not spend over 40.

The online grocery shopping market is still quite a tricky one to navigate, what with all the variables, but hopefully, this means that consumers have power.