Retail Week Indicator reviewed the top UK retailers’ ecommerce capabilities. Discover the top trends and best performing retailers.
Top 10 retailers at ecommerce
| Position | Retailer | Ecommerce score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amazon | 81.5 |
| 2 | Asos | 68.8 |
| 3 | eBay | 67.0 |
| 4 | Screwfix | 65.8 |
| 5 | Dixons Carphone | 63.6 |
| 6 | WiggleCRC | 63.3 |
| 7 | JD Sports | 63.2 |
| 8 | H&M | 62.9 |
| 9 | Next | 62.2 |
| 10 | Apple | 60.3 |
All scoring runs from 0 to 100, with 100 being the maximum score.
The need for (download) speed
The results of this year’s Indicator show that download speeds on retail websites have notably reduced.
Last year, the average homepage download speed was 4.42 seconds on desktop and 4.96 seconds on mobile, now it is 4.02 seconds and 4.06 seconds, respectively.
It is a similar story with product pages, which have reduced from 4.84 seconds on desktop and 5.26 seconds on mobile, to 4.65 seconds and 4.82 seconds respectively.
However, Google UK director of retail and technology Martijn Bertisen says this is still not fast enough: “Any website that loads slower than three seconds is going to harm your conversion rate and negatively impact your customer loyalty.”
The slowest retailer sites
| Position | Homepage download speed (in seconds) | Product page download speed (in seconds) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LloydsPharmacy | 12.1 | Boots | 12.8 |
| 2 | Quiz | 11.1 | LloydsPharmacy | 12.4 |
| 3 | Harvey Nichols | 10.6 | Quiz | 12.2 |
| 4 | Topps Tiles | 10.4 | Pets At Home | 11.1 |
| 5 | Green Man Gaming | 10.1 | John Lewis | 10.8 |
| 6 | Boohoo.com | 8.6 | Green Man Gaming | 10.6 |
| 7 | Harrods | 8.4 | Space NK | 9.7 |
| 8 | Zalando | 8.2 | Harvey Nichols | 9.7 |
| 9 | Pets at Home | 8.1 | Holland & Barrett | 9.0 |
| 10 | BrandAlley | 7.6 | Shop Direct | 8.8 |
The fastest retailer sites
| Position | Homepage download speed (in seconds) | Product page download speed (in seconds) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eve Sleep | 0.41 | Debenhams | 0.70 |
| 2 | Debenhams | 0.70 | Fenwick | 1.10 |
| 3 | Asda | 0.84 | McColl’s | 1.27 |
| 4 | Yoox Net-a-Porter | 1.04 | Claire’s | 1.37 |
| 5 | Fenwick | 1.20 | Laura Ashley | 1.46 |
| 6 | Laura Ashley | 1.22 | Home Bargains | 1.50 |
| 7 | Marks & Spencer | 1.28 | B&M | 1.75 |
| 8 | Victoria Plum | 1.31 | Lakeland | 1.80 |
| 9 | The Body Shop | 1.43 | Majestic Wine | 1.82 |
| 10 | eBay | 1.50 | Crew Clothing | 1.84 |
Google research found that as page load time goes from one second to three seconds, the probability of customers leaving the site increases 32%. As this moves from one second to five seconds, this rises to 90%.
Product search
Speed is also paramount when it comes to search results, which is why retailers have invested in features and technology to help shoppers easily find what they’re looking for.
Autocompleting search terms is increasingly becoming a hygiene factor with 86% of the retailers monitored by Indicator using the feature on their desktop. Eleven retailers introduced the capability over the year.
There was also some investment in new technologies such as voice and visual search, though it is far from commonplace.
Six retailers added voice search to their app, meaning 9% of the retail apps reviewed have such capabilities.
But with media analytics firm ComScore forecasting that half of all searches will be carried out by voice by 2020, are retailers paying voice enough attention?
Voice search is perfect for shoppers on-the-move as it offers a hands-free way to get quick answers.
Bertisen says: “People want to interact in a much more natural way and they want an assisted experience. They now ask questions the way they would ask a shop assistant. They expect to have a conversation.”
Image search is also in a nascent state with just two retailers investing in the technology over the past year, taking the percentage of retailers that incorporate visual search into their apps to 9%.
Fashion search
Although image search has been adopted by some general merchandise retailers such as Amazon and Argos it is fashion where this holds the most opportunity. Fashion is a highly visual sector and many people search for what they want to buy based on what celebrities or even fashionable friends are wearing.
Marks & Spencer is one of the retailers that has added visual search to its mobile website to allow shoppers to search for products using a photo.
Its Style Finder function, developed with AI specialist Syte, lets customers to upload an existing photo or take a new one of any outfit to reveal similar-looking products available in M&S.
The retailer says said it allows customers to filter through “thousands” of products in less than 10 seconds.
When the feature launched in January, M&S head of digital product and user experience Jim Cruickshank said: “We know our customers are busier than ever and are often most inspired when they’re out and about. Style Finder helps customers instantly find what they’re looking for, without the need to manually search and filter through our products.
“This is a brilliant example of how we’re becoming more relevant, more often, to our customers who are increasingly shopping online and in particular using mobile devices.”
Bertisen says image search can take friction out of the shopping experience. “Shopping is a visual experience. It’s a natural evolution that people would want to shop through an exact image of the product they want to buy as it’s so much easier. It’s about taking out friction and unnecessary steps,” he says.
“It’s taking people back to the behaviours they would’ve exhibited in a store. We can recreate that digitally.”
