The Wine Society has most improved UK drinks retail website in September
Brought to you by Retail Insider and Sitemorse
The Wine Society has leapt up the table of the top performing UK drinks websites in September, according to analysis undertaken exclusively for Retail Insider by online specialist Sitemorse, as it climbed 11 places into seventh spot.
The retailer achieved a score of 4.04 out of 10 compared with 3.04 in August when it stood in 18th spot in the table of 26 merchants that have drinks as part of their retail mix. It claimed the most improved title ahead of Selfridges that moved up nine places into 13th spot with a score of 3.32.
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 was a month of little change at the top of the table with Budgens holding the premier spot just ahead of British Airways Wine Club and Londis as each scored the same as last month, with 5.94, 5.42 and 4.84 respectively.
Just below them, making up the top five are Spar (UK) and Bargain Booze, which both moved up one place. They sit above Aldi that fell two places into sixth spot. Among the other major fallers this month are The Drink Shop that slipped eight places to 20th spot, The Whisky Shop, dropped seven places to 14th spot, and both slurp and Marks & Spencer decline three places to 22nd and 11th spots respectively.
The bottom of the table also remains largely unchanged this month, with Naked Wines, Tesco, Waitrose and Laithwaites taking the lowest four spots again. Although Naked Wines holds onto last position it also this month, in complete contrast, topped the table of the most socially engaged online wine retailers, according to separate research undertaken by Leapfrogg.
Online sales across all categories enjoyed strong year-on-year growth of 16% in August, according to the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. Beers, wines and spirits enjoyed an increase of 4%, which is its first month of growth since March 2016.
Top UK Drinks Retail Websites – September 2016
Company Name +/- Score out of 10
- Budgens same 5.94
- British Airways Wine Club same 5.42
- Londis same 4.84
- Spar (UK) +1 4.56
- Bargain Booze +1 4.12
- Aldi -2 4.10
- The Wine Society +11 4.04
- Virgin Wines +3 3.94
- EH Booth & Co same 3.84
- Fortnum & Mason same 3.78
- Marks & Spencer -3 3.70
- Lidl +2 3.59
- Selfridges +9 3.32
- The Whisky Shop -7 3.32
- Oddbins -2 3.24
- Asda +1 3.14
- Majestic Wine -2 2.96
- Morrisons -2 2.94
- Sunday Times Wine Club +1 2.70
- The Drink Shop -8 2.64
- BEERmerchants.com same 2.60
- Slurp.co.uk -3 2.30
- Laithwaites same 2.24
- Waitrose Cellar same 2.14
- Tesco same 1.82
- Naked Wines same 1.36
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