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Online move won’t save Morrisons says Leeds Met expert
Morrisons, one of Yorkshire’s biggest exports, has had a tough time recently.
After a disappointing Christmas, when competitors Waitrose, Lidl and Aldi out-performed them, their late online move as well as celebrity endorsements with Ant and Dec, and sponsorship of Britain’s Got Talent are attempts by the firm to recover some ground.
Rumours have also been circulating about a buy-out at Morrisons. Bdaily contacted the firm and they could provide no comment on this speculation.
Cathy Barnes, professor of retail innovation at Leeds Metropolitan University, and leader of the Faraday Centre for Retail Excellence speaks to Bdaily on the decline of Morrisons, their late arrival on the online grocery scene, and whether it can redeem itself in the following financial year.
“Speaking as a customer, I have used Morrisons online services twice, and they are absolutely excellent. From a professional viewpoint, they have learned from the successes and failures of their competitors who have already gone online.
“They have definitely done a good job of merging what is good about Morrisons and the Ocado approach as well.
“With several stages of the online experience, from the initial website browsing to delivery, it worked really well. They have some quite nice touches. I dont think it brings anything new to the table, but all the improvements are quite subtle.
“When you go through the psychological customer experience, if a customers’ expectation is already high, they may be disappointed even if their experience meets their expectations, purely because it doesn’t exceed them.
“But with Morrisons, they’ve probably benefitted from the fact that we as consumers had quite low expectations to begin with!
“However, they take it over and above the norm. Things like when you book your delivery slot, it can be broken down in hourly slots on the half hour, which makes a real difference if you finish work at 5 and need time to get home. It’s very subtle but does make a big difference.
“The website has no real innovation there, but they have a really good user interface on their ipad and smart phone apps.
“Compared to others, who frequently substitute items, and who have less than inspiring user interfaces, like Sainsbury’s who doesn’t have an iPad configured app, so you end up on a tiny screen.
“The user interface hasn’t been thought through there. I don’t think this online move will be their saviour, they already have so much competition on the online market and are latecomers to it.
“It will take time, not everyone will be as quick to take it up, when there are other options. Put it this way, I did it once, and I liked it so much I did it again.
“However, as more and more people shop online and in different ways, Morrisons has at least got another way which we can shop with them.
“It will also mean that users who have a good online experience with them are more likely to go to a Morrisons supermarket, driving sales offline as well.
“They are still limited in their convenience offering, and haven’t grasped that market yet either.”
This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .
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