Aldi edges out Spar (UK) as top UK drinks retail website

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The cat and mouse battle between Aldi and Spar (UK) continued at the head of the table of the UK’s Top 25 leading drinks retailing websites, with the German supermarket taking the prime spot this month with a particularly impressive score.

The business moved up two places as it achieved 8.16 out of 10, which pushed Spar (UK) down into second place as it scored an identical 7.44 as last month, according to the rankings of the top UK drinks retailers’ websites produced exclusively for Retailinsider.com by website testing specialist Sitemorse.

To produce the rankings Sitemorse runs automated software that page-by-page reads the first 125 pages of each website and analyses on the basis of six key criteria – function, code quality, user experience, accessibility, performance and SEO capability.

The move up the table by Aldi also pushed The Whisky Shop down one place as the top three again re-jigged their positions at the head of the ranked list. In fact the top 5 constituents are the same as in December, with both Fortnum & Mason and Budgens holding the fourth and fifth spots respectively.

There was an overall improvement in the average scores this month, at least in the top 10 – as the 10th position (held by Londis) was achieved with a score of 5.10 compared with the lesser 4.64 in December.

The biggest riser this month is Selfridges that moves up three places – to counter the four it fell in December – as it climbs into 18th spot with a score of 2.90, although this gives it an equal score with both Asda and Waitrose.

Having such big names towards the lower end of the table continues to be a theme and it is a similar story with the bottom three – with each being an online specialist. Laithwaites, Naked Wines and the Sunday Times Wine Club again prop up the table although Naked Wines managed to climb from plumb last to one place above the Sunday Times Wine Club – albeit with a very low score of 1.88 out of 10.

Again one retailer was excluded from the Sitemorse testing this month, with Sainsbury’s not included in the Top 25 table because of its continued reliance on JavaScript.

Top 25 Drinks Retail Websites – Jan 2013

Company Name                      +/-       Score out of 10

            Aldi                              +2        8.16    

            Spar (UK)                     -1         7.44

            The Whisky Shop         -1         7.10

            Fortnum & Mason same   6.50

            Budgens                      same   6.22

            The Wine Society        +1        5.90

            Bargain Booze             -1         5.76

            Lidl                              same   5.19

            EH Booth & Co     +1        5.18

            Londis                          -1         5.10

            Iceland                         same   4.38

            Majestic Wine             same   3.84

            The Drink Shop            +1        3.77

            BeerMerchants.com   +1        3.70                

            Marks & Spencer -2         3.66

            Slurp.co.uk                  same   3.30

            Tesco                           same   3.10

            Selfridges                    +3        2.90

            Asda                            -1         2.90

            Waitrose                     same   2.90

            Virgin Wines               -2         2.40

            Laithwaites                  same   2.14

            Naked Wines               +1        1.88

            Sun Times Wine Club  -1         1.78


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