Just one third of UK online grocery shoppers rate their online grocery shopping experience as easy, according to the latest consumer research from Voice of the Customer specialist eDigitalResearch.

eDigitalResearch also found that almost three quarters (74%) of British online shoppers have now shopped online for grocery items, with 40% doing so regularly on a weekly and monthly basis. However, just 32% (one third) of online grocery shoppers rate their experience as ‘easy’ or ‘very easy’, suggesting that supermarkets need to improve their online user experience.

The results also indicate that over three quarters (77%) of grocery shoppers feel that their online shop takes them fifteen minutes or more, with 1 in 5 (21%) taking over half an hour to complete an online food shop. Deeper analysis reveals that half (50%) of those online grocery shoppers surveyed are deeply unsatisfied with the time it currently takes them to complete a food and drink shop via a supermarket’s website – an area that clearly needs developing and improving.

Derek Eccleston, Commercial Director at eDigitalResearch comments, “Online grocery shopping has often been touted in the past as a quick and hassle free alternative to busy and crowded supermarkets but these results indicate that this isn’t always the case. With more and more of us turning to online and digital channels to shop and browse, these results clearly indicate that more needs to be done to improve the online grocery shopping experience and to ultimately encourage more of us to part with our hard-earned cash when we’re buying food and drink items online”.

The study also looked at how consumers complete their online grocery shops and found that there is a high degree of searching and browsing, with just one third (35%) stating that they only use their favourites or saved lists to purchase food and drink items online.

The results are part of eDigitalResearch’s recent investigation into how the British public shop and browse for food and drink items online. The full study results will be available later in June.