Oddbins romps up table of top performing online drinks retailers in August

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Oddbins has shot up the table of the Top UK drinks websites in August, according to analysis undertaken exclusively for Retail Insider by online specialist Sitemorse, to earn it a place just outside the top five.

This is a rapid turnaround for the retailer that was languishing in 21st spot in May with a score of just 2.32 out of 10 but now stands proudly in sixth spot with a score of 3.94 having moved up four places this month. This follows its move up one place in July and an impressive 10 positions in June.

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.

It has also been an improved month for the major supermarkets, with Sainsbury’s moving up four places to ninth spot, Tesco up seven to 12th spot, Asda up six to 14th spot, and Morrisons holding onto its 15th spot with the same score as last month.

August has been an eventful month overall, with the top 10 positions involving retailers almost unanimously moving up the table. The only faller in this upper echelon was Spar (UK) that dropped seven places to 10th spot with a score of 3.23. It has been a steady decline for the company that for a sustained period held the top spot in the table.

This is presently held by Budgens that retained the premier spot with the same score as last month – 6.08. It is followed by Bargain Booze and The Whisky Shop. Another climber this month is Naked Wines that moves up five places to 20th spot having pulled itself off the bottom spot, which has now been taken by Waitrose Cellar, which scored 2.14.

The Sitemorse results come alongside online sales increasing for the overall market (across all sectors) by 12% year-on-year in July, according to the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index.

Londis was yet again excluded from the Sitemorse testing this month because of its reliance on JavaScript.

Top UK Drinks Retail Websites – August 2015

 Company Name                      +/-       Score out of 10

  • Budgens                          same              6.08
  • Bargain Booze               +2                   5.86
  • The Whisky Shop          -1                    5.68
  • BEERmerchants.com   +1                   4.32
  • Aldi                                   +1                   4.04
  • Oddbins                           +4                  3.94
  • Lidl                                   +1                   3.77
  • The Drink Shop             +1                   3.61
  • Sainsbury’s                     +4                   3.58
  • Spar (UK)                        -7                    3.23
  • EH Booth & Co               +3                  3.23
  • Tesco                                 +7                  3.20
  • Marks & Spencer            -2                   3.20
  • Asda                                  +6                  3.20
  • Morrisons                        same              3.20
  • Selfridges                         -9                   3.14
  • Majestic Wine                 -1                    3.04
  • Fortnum & Mason          -6                   3.04
  • The Wine Society            -1                    2.76
  • Naked Wines                   +5                   2.70
  • Slurp.co.uk                       -4                   2.62
  • Virgin Wines                    -1                    2.58
  • Sun Times Wine Club     -1                   2.15
  • Laithwaites                       -1                   2.14
  • Waitrose Cellar                -1                   2.14

Sitemorse has been advising its clients about how to improve their web presence for more than a dozen years and its technical team have fine-tuned the Sitemorse software engine so that it is capable of doing far more than just helping find problems. The company offers true digital insight to many large and small organisations in public and private sectors, as well as publishing regular unique INDEX benchmarks