Q1 What impression (if any) did you have of Tesco.com/groceries before you took part in this test? If you'd used the service before, how had you found it? If you hadn't tried it before, had you heard any feedback on it, either good or bad?
I've been using Tesco.com for a long time - ever since morning sickness with my now almost 5 year old DS stopped me being able to go into the store in fact! DH used them a lot before we moved in together too. I've always found the service to be very reliable. Deliveries are very rarely late, very, very rarely cancelled and the substitutions are usually sensible. Any issues are generally dealt with very effectively by the driver or by a quick all to the helpline. My only issue has been that the staff at our local store don't seem to read the notes I sometimes leave for items and I've had pink toothbrushes delivered when I'd specifically asked for a pirate one etc... I don't bother any more and just take my chances. I've complained before and it's never done any good. I do like that I can have things delivered without bags too and that the drivers will take spare bags away.
Q2 Now thinking about doing your test shop on Tesco.com/groceries, what were your initial impressions of how the site works? Did you find it easy to use or not? What did you like about it the most? And the least?
Obviously, I'm very familiar with the website and therefore found it very easy to use. I sometimes do a price comparison using mysupermarket.com but for our family shop, Tesco wins out 99% of the time so I tend to go straight to the Tesco site most of the time. I like the search facility - although I wish my favourites came up at the top of a search and I wish there was some way of sorting the lists by price or weight as sometimes I'm just looking for the cheapest price per weight and sometimes, if for example I'm trying out a new recipe, I only want a small amount of the item and am looking for the smallest jar/tin/pack available. I also like the Special Offers tab and occasionally the recipes tab
Q3 How did you find the 'favourites' tool to use? Did you find it useful or not? Do you think it saved you time using this tool or not? If so, roughly how much time do you think it saved? If you don't think it saved you any time, why not?
I don't like the favourites tool. I've used it in the past but find that it takes longer and I end up spending more. I tend to decide what I'm cooking for the week and then go to Tesco.com to get the ingredients - especially at the moment as I am on a diet and trying out lots of new recipes - If I search through my favourites, I end up a) spending ages going through everything I've bought previously before I find the thing I want, even if I've used "my usuals" and b) spending more money as I spot things we liked before as I scan through. It's the online equivalent of an impulse buy - all those bits you spot and drop in your trolley as you wander round. I always worry too that I'm picking up the item I always get and perhaps not the cheapest or best on offer as I can only see the one's I usually buy. What I'd much rather is if my favourites came up at the top of a search so for example, when I search for the children's cereal, our favourites came at the top of the first page instead of halfway down the second. This would save me time and allow me to quickly see the other, similar items which are perhaps on offer.
Q4 If you've ever used any other online grocery delivery service, how does Tesco.com/groceries compare?
I've never tried another service. My MIL and SILs are always raving about Ocado but whenever I've checked, it's always been so much more than Tesco that I've not wanted to waste the money. I've heard so many horror stories on here too that I tend to stick with the devil we know.
Q5 If it came up in conversation, do you think you'd recommend Tesco.com/groceries to your friends? If so, why? If not, why not?
To be honest, most of my friends already use Tesco.com so apart from the occasional gripe about weird substitutions, it never really comes up. I have had the odd argument discussion about it on here though and have always stood up for Tesco as I've never had any major problems even in bad weather.
Q6 Do you think you'll use Tesco.com/groceries again in future? If so, why? If not, why not? Would you say this experience will make you do more grocery shopping online rather than in store or not? Why?
I will shop online with Tesco again. I was getting very annoyed with it all and frustrated with the limited choice in comparison to in store so I had been going to the shop myself more often but I've noticed with this shop that more and more of the counter products are now available online which is a massive boost for me. I've been able to buy smaller/larger amounts of some fish and cheese for a recipe I want to try when previously, I'd have been stuck with the standard pack size from which the excess which would have potentially been wasted. If there was an option to list search results by pack size or price per weight, I'd be even happier. I'll still probably shop both instore and online
One last thing - I've always wished that the photos attached to some products had a 'zoom in' function. When DD was tiny and I was buying nappies, it was really frustrating to have to go to the nappy manufacturers website to find out what weight size x nappies were for because Tesco.com only listed the nappies as size 2 for example and didn't say anywhere what weights size 2 covered. If I'd have been able to zoom in the photo, I'd at least have been able to read the information from the front of the pack. I was a second time Mum at the time so had a good idea of what I was looking for so I'm sure lots of new parents will have struggled with that too. Same goes for 'special edition' foods. We had some burgers last year that I'd picked up in store because they sounded so nice in the blurb on the front of the pack, but when i went to buy some more online, I couldn't read the text on the pack so couldn't be sure they were the same ones when the online description only said 'special edition'.