Page 23ISn June 2009
ISNonline Version. www.internationalsupermarketnews.com
News
In his BrC annual retail lecture, andy Bond
last night identified a major shift in the relation-
ship between customers and retailers which must
be appreciated and catered for. there was a central
anxiety in Bond's speech to restore consumers'
confidence in large corporate organisations after the
banking crisis.
according to asda's Ceo, the power base has
shifted in the last year in the relationship between
consumers and retail chains. one of the reasons
cited for this is the fact that information on food
safety, ingredients and price is more prevalent
due to the internet and price comparison websites.
knowledge concerning products has become more
common, giving the customer the power to choose
and be more in charge of their buying. Consumer
behaviour is changing, with more shoppers adopting
a "create it yourself" role, reflected by more bulk
buying. Shoppers' expectations are more exacting
now and there are different reasons for this.
Regaining trust
trust has been lost in the big high street corpora-
tions following the banking crisis, with the banks
acting as a reflective template for large companies
Asda CEO speaks of new relation
between shoppers and retailers
of all kinds. Bond has said that the supermarket must play a helpful and significant
role in community life, as this is where shoppers have taken their custom. there has
been a reining in to community and family life - the familiar - and supermarkets must
woo themselves a place in this. Consumers now demand transparency and honesty in
companies' dealings with the public.
Bond also compared the scale of change in the relationship between shoppers and
retailers to that which unions brought to relations between employers and employees.
which? magazine has identified ocado as consumers' favourite deliverer
of online purchases, in a customer survey of 2,000 people. the survey
included other outlets such as tesco, asda, Sainsbury's and waitrose.
which? readers appreciated the no-nonsense and accessible website
ocado had to offer, in preference to all the jargon-ridden options in-
creasingly taking up cyber-space, and the fresh quality of the fruit and
vegetables. tesco and asda shoppers were less satisfied with the online
delivery service, and consequentially the chains were at the botom end
of the table. most of asda's shoppers said that the goods they received at
their doorstep were inferior to what they would find in-store.
more than one in ten customers had a missing item, and just under one
in ten customers found that the goods had been damaged.
and as we already reported today, some shoppers are receiving the
incorrect goods. For instance, one customer who asked for vanilla air-
freshener ended up receiving vanilla ice-cream!
Ocado is favourite online delivery service!

Page 1Page 2Page 3Page 4Page 5Page 6Page 7Page 8Page 9Page 10Page 11Page 12Page 13Page 14Page 15Page 16Page 17Page 18Page 19Page 20Page 21Page 22Page 23Page 24Page 25Page 26Page 27Page 28Page 29Page 30Page 31Page 32Page 33Page 34Page 35Page 36Page 37Page 38Page 39Page 40Page 41Page 42Page 43Page 44Page 45Page 46Page 47Page 48Page 49Page 50Page 51Page 52Page 53Page 54Page 55Page 56Page 57Page 58Page 59Page 60Page 61Page 62Page 63Page 64Page 65Page 66Page 67Page 68Page 69Page 70Page 71Page 72Page 73Page 74Page 75Page 76Page 77Page 78Page 79Page 80Page 81Page 82Page 83Page 84 Produced by PageSuite