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Ocado Lets Shoppers Rate and Review Groceries

OCADO is the first UK supermarket to allow shoppers to score and evaluate groceries online as it launches new service, Ratings & Reviews.

Developed by Ocado, with the help of social commerce pioneers Bazaarvoice, Ratings & Reviews allows shoppers to rate products out of five and leave written reviews – it is a development of systems used by major non-food internet retailers such as Amazon and consumer travel sites such as TripAdvisor.

The Ratings and Review service will cover all 21,000 products stocked on Ocado’s virtual shelves – everything from quality Waitrose own-label groceries as well as the nation’s favourite food and drink brands, to local artisan suppliers. It will also cover a wide range of non-food lines including toys, flowers, magazines, and kitchenware.

When clicking through to a specific product, shoppers will be able to read reviews left by other users and add their own review under an online assumed name. They will also see an overall rating (out of five stars) that has been given to a product, as well as separate ratings for value for money, quality of packaging and overall quality. They will also be able to submit their own product ratings. When browsing aisles of products, shoppers can therefore quickly reference an overall product score out of five, and the number of people who have rated items so far.

In addition, shoppers will be encouraged to share product reviews online with friends and family using social media channels including Facebook and Twitter accounts. Ocado aims to deliver the most engaging online supermarket experience - an experience offering the interactivity of shopping in a traditional store, but one that also gives shoppers greater control of their baskets and allows Ocado the opportunity to enhance its already market-leading service based on regular consumer feedback.

Tim Steiner, Ocado’s Chief Executive, said “We at Ocado want to capture and inject the wisdom and views of our customers into our online shopping experience.

“Our Ratings & Reviews service will allow customers to swap valuable recommendations on groceries and see the ratings and reviews of products that are popular when feeding friends and families. It will give our customers, particularly new ones, increased confidence when shopping for food online.

“At the same time, we’ll be able to listen more to customers, and learn, in a way that a local supermarket cannot.”

Andrew Bracey, Ocado’s Chief Financial Officer, said “Ocado continues to champion new technology; our iPhone app has been a massive success this year; it now accounts for 3% of our sales. We are confident Ratings & Reviews will be another hugely beneficial, forward-thinking and technology-driven addition to our platform.

“We’re particularly excited to be at the forefront of delivering such an essential social networking experience to our customers. It’s a first, significant step towards a fully interactive online supermarket that will allow people to chat helpfully with one another as they fill their baskets.”

Ratings & Reviews stems from the retail insight that 77% of online shoppers now use reviews and ratings content when shopping (Jupiter Research). Ocado’s service, in the final stages of testing, will fully launch in January next year.

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