1. Case Study: Ocado and Tesco.com
CMP010N: E-Solutions and Digital Media Applications
Maria Gomez Aguirre
Student Id 10003413
MA Digital Media
London Metropolitan University
February 2011

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Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................................... 3
Comparative analysis of the case studies............................................................................................. 3
Interface design........................................................................................................................... 3
Use of images, colour scheme and interactive feature................................................................ 4
Navigation, information architecture, organization of content (usability and accessibility) .....4
Content, information about products.......................................................................................... 5
Clarity of procedures...................................................................................................................5
Terms and conditions section...................................................................................................... 6
CMR strategies and Trust-enhancing strategies..........................................................................6
Community features, if any.........................................................................................................7
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................ 7
Bibliography......................................................................................................................................... 9

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Introduction
In this paper we are intended to compare two different approaches in Business-to-
Customer e-commerce sites: Ocado and Tesco.com. We outline their main differences and
similarities in what makes online businesses successful: usability, content management
and clarity of procedures among others.
Ocado is an independent internet based grocery store. It was founded in 2002 by three ex-
bankers and it is currently on partnership with John Lewis and other shareholders. They
promote an alternative way of shopping. With non physical shops all orders are made on
the Ocado website and they go directly to a single wharehouse where, once prepared,
they are delivery to the customer (Green, 2010). During 2010 they report to have an
average of 92.916 orders per week, 12% of those using mobile devices (Ocado Group,
2011).
Tesco.com is the e-commerce site for Tesco, the world's third-largest retailer (Reuters,
2011). The group includes a large variety of goods, including groceries, clothing and
electronic among others. Tesco.com was first launched in 2000 (Tesco pcl, 2010).
Opposite to Ocado, its business model is based on local stores, that is, customers place
an order online and this is redirect to their local store, where it is packed and deliver under
the store management. Tesco reports to have had a 9.1% increase on profits in its grocery
shop during 2010 with 1.2 millions users (Tesco plc, 2010).
Comparative analysis of the case studies
Interface design
Tesco.com contains a vast range of goods to be purchase, as explained previously. For
that reason it is important that the site is well organize and that there is a clear division
between the types of products. Tesco.com fulfils this requirement cleverly in my opinion, by
the use of a neat colour scheme (to be explain later in the document) and by grouping its

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goods in the same way that it is done offline. For instance, the home page has different
panels to access the grocery store, Tesco Direct, Clothing, etc. It goes even further with
some of these panels linking to a dedicated website (ie Clothing linking to
http://www.clothingattesco.com/ and so on).
Ocado is much smaller and does not have all the satellites businesses, but it as well
manages to help the user find his way on the site with a permanent menu on the top.
Use of images, colour scheme and interactive feature
Both Tesco and Ocado use a colour scheme that relates to the brand.
In the case of Ocado its home page uses a monochromatic colour scheme (Bradley, 2008)
playing with different tones of green while combine with purple (one of its
complementaries' on the colour wheel) to catch the user's attention on the primary actions
(start shopping, login...). Most of Western cultures associate green with the environment
and a more natural way of life (Cortes, 2003) and that is exactly what Ocado promotes, so
obviously the choose of this colour is not a coincidence.
The home page of Tesco.com is a clear extension of their branded blue and red colour
scheme. Combination of cold colours such as different tones of blue and grey over a white
background give the user a feeling of clean site (even with all the information that it
shows). However, they have incorporate a few elements in red (a warm colour) and that
helps to catch the attention of the user (Coulter, 2010).
In terms of interactive features, even though Tesco has got a much wider audience than
Ocado, and obviously more resources, I think the latter wins in the quality of those, as for
instance it offers the user not just recipes for almost every food product but allows the
customer to leave review and rate them.
Navigation, information architecture, organization of content (usability
and accessibility)
Both site keep a menu on the top for the whole of the user journey, as well as adding
lateral menus in the pages where needed, in general in order to show the different
subsection that the page contains.

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Having a clear and robust information architecture benefits the usability of site and
improve considerably the user experience. This structure is often represent by a site map
(Chaffey, 2009). The site map on Ocado offers much more information than Tesco's. The
first one showing up to three levels of navigation, while Tesco.com shows only two.
However in terms usability and accessibility I believe Tesco.com is in a better position. It
not only has a better grade from W3C (Tesco:AA, Ocado:A) but the site provides useful
instructions in its usability statement.
Content, information about products
Ocado only shows product that are in stock (Briggs, 2009), this is because all the stock is
in one place and they have a stock controlling system in place. On the other hand, Tesco
shows all product that your near by physical store (from which your shop will be deliver) is
likely to have. Both of them show a great amount of information for each product they sell,
however Ocado tends to be more detailed, showing some useful information like the
manufacturer or the types of diet that suit (ie vegetarian, halal...). It goes even further by
allowing the users to rate and review the product. I think Ocado is much better in
processing and presenting the information and it obviously goes with its philosophy of
making the shopping easier, so if a named user has a particular requirement for his food,
ie a vegan user, it is quicker for him to shop in Ocado where he can easily check if a
product is suitable for him.
Clarity of procedures
In Tesco.com processes are shorter in terms of number of steps, for instance users can
complete the payment process in three (Order Summary, Payment and Confirmation).
However these steps can be a bit confusing as they have a lot of information in just one
page. That is why I think Ocado, with a bigger number of steps but less information in each
of them, offers a richer user experience. Each of step of the payment system refer to one
subject, being that card details or delivery address. It is as well a good method to introduce
upsell elements (Ocado dedicates one page of the payment process to recommend
products that the user may like or that are on special offer).

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Terms and conditions section
Both Tesco.com and Ocado has a complete section on privacy and terms and conditions
available for the user to read at any given time while in the site, as there is a link in the
footer of every page. Additionally, in every process that requires sending sensible
information to the server, like Register or Payment, another link to this policies can be
found and the system needs the acknowledge of the user to continue with the process.
This section is indispensable in any e-commerce transaction, as it needs to reassure the
user about the legality of what he is buying while protecting the vendor's interests (Laudon,
2008).
CMR strategies and Trust-enhancing strategies
As Chaffey explains “building long-term relationships with customers is essential for any
sustainable business” (Chaffey, 2009). He explains different techniques an online business
can use to targeting new client while keeping the existing ones.
For Tesco the most successful way of exploit its relationship with clients is its Clubcard
loyalty scheme, which rewards the user with point when using the card on his shopping.
This gives Tesco an invaluable information about the customers' profile (what they buy,
how frequent...). Clubcard is an essential part of Tesco.com site, with reference of the
points the user can gain in each product and with a dedicated site
(http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/clubcard/). Obviously, for a customer point of view, once
he has his Clubcard card and starts using it, he is more likely to return shopping in Tesco
so he can enjoy the benefits of it (vouchers, special prices, etc.).
On the other side, Ocado does not have an equivalent to this, it has however what it is
called “The Ocado Way”, an area on the site where the philosophy of Ocado is promoted.
Ocado target market is middle class people who are environmentally conscious (Briggs,
2009) and therefore this space helps the costumer to have a greener life style and
enhance his trust in Ocado by, for instance, promoting meat-free days or informing the
user about its plans of reducing carbon emissions.
Both sites have develop a really sophisticated e-mail based marketing campaign, sending
periodically e-mails to register users containing offers and products that suit them based of
what they have bought previously.

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In terms of customer service, both sites have a quite clear and complete section in the site,
that include FAQ and Contact Us. The latter allows the user to choose between different
channels: e-mail, online form, phone number, postal address and, in the case of Tesco, an
store locator.
Community features, if any
Laudon (Laudon, 2008) empathises in the importance of the use of online communities in
e-commerce sites, specifically by applying marketing campaigns linked to the site. Ocado
applies this by adding different elements to its site such as “Share with friends” panels,
feeds from its Facebook pages, Twitter account and blog. Tesco.com although it has some
of this online community features does not seem to use it as much as Ocado (at the time
of writing this document, @ocadouk almost four times more followers that @TescoOnline).
However, Tesco seems to be more focus on its in-house communities like Baby&Toddler
Club and TescoDiets. This way of dividing its online communities based on interests
(babies, nutrition, charity initiatives...) allows Tesco to provide a better and more personal
service to the users.
Conclusion
One of the most unexpected conclusions I would like to talk about is the fact that I have
found much more similarities between the two sites that I expected. Obviously these are
two different companies, with well differentiate business models and target audiences but
even though, their e-commerce sites follow the same rules in quite a lot of procedures. For
instance, both use the same technology for autocompleting searches, or designing a
visually similar basket.
In my opinion, the experience of buying through Ocado is much richer than Tesco.com, but
then I think I personally fit better in Ocados's target market than in Tesco's. Nontheless I
think Tesco.com can have a big improvement in terms of user experience just by
implementing a few of the things that Ocado is currently doing, like allowing users to
browse the grocery store without being registered (which I think can persuade a lot of
people away from the site), improving the quality of the product information by providing
better images and descriptions and, most important, inviting customers to review the

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products (Charlton, 2008). Ocado, on the other side, is not perfect either and it needs to
work to develop a more usable site among other things, but their product presentation is
exceptional. The only improvement I would suggest on this is to include more interactive
elements, like videos explaining how to use or cook the products.
Friedlein (Friedlein, 2011) affirms that 2011 is the year of taking into action and develop
technologies and ideas that are already available, like Interactive TV (Tesco is already
planning it) or more personalise relation with the customer. To success in the latter I would
suggest to both companies to implement a personalised offer system, so the user can
obtain discount or special offers in product that may interest him.
Finally I would like to stress the importance of a good customer service strategy and an
even better PR one, because although it is essential that an existing customer is feeling
happy about his experience in the site, it is event more important to be able to react
effectively when a unsatisfied customer decided to take his frustration into the public eye in
any social network. I believe social networks such as Facebook and Twitter needs to be
treated as additional channel through which customers can share their thoughts expecting
the company to acknowledge them.

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