M&S is currently listing more than seven times the number of beers, wines and spirits products than Waitrose on Ocado, as it begins to ramp up its offer and activity ahead of its official launch on the website on 1 September.
This is according to new data from Edge by Ascential’s e-commerce analytics SaaS platform, Digital Shelf. Analysis into the full category and product ranges currently listed (as of 25 August) on Ocado’s website reveals M&S is preparing to sell a significantly higher proportion of alcohol products than the current Waitrose offer.
This is particularly prevalent in the wine category – in red wine Waitrose was listing just seven products versus 102 for M&S, whilst in white wine M&S was listing 82 products compared to just 13 for Waitrose.
Within grocery, M&S also appeared to dominate in the ambient – shelf-stable foods – category, accounting for 46.3% the available ranges, compared with just 39% for Waitrose. However, Waitrose had a higher percentage share of products (54.2%) in the chilled foods category, despite a lower number of products than M&S, but this is only because it is listing noticeably fewer products overall.
| Beers, Wines & Spirits | Number of SKUs (25 August 2020) | |
| Waitrose | M&S | |
| Red Wine | 7 | 102 |
| White Wine | 13 | 82 |
| Spirits | 7 | 36 |
| Beer, Lager, Ale and Cider | 8 | 36 |
| Rose Wine | 0 | 26 |
| Sparkling White | 1 | 14 |
| Fortified Wines | 9 | 14 |
| Sparkling Rose | 0 | 10 |
| Champagne | 4 | 7 |
| Ready to Drink | 0 | 1 |
| Alcohol Gift Sets | 0 | 1 |
However, Digital Shelf analysts found that M&S is currently trailing behind Waitrose in the home care category, which includes home products such as bin liners and cleaning products, in which M&S accounted for just 0.3% of products, compared with 7.4% for Waitrose. This is also the case for health & beauty items, where Waitrose products accounted for 1.7% of the ranges available, compared with only 0.9% for M&S.
The data from Edge Digital Shelf also reveals that the Waitrose range on Ocado has fallen by 33.5% since the start of 2020, including an 8.5% drop that occurred in the first week of the year. Ocado started listing (but not for sale) the M&S range on its website in mid-August and as of 25 August, there were 20.7% more M&S products than Waitrose. However, this was still 19.8% lower than Waitrose had in January.
Chris Elliott, Digital Shelf analyst at Edge by Ascential, commented: “Given all of these products are still listed as unavailable for purchase and we’re still seeing lines added, it’s reasonable to assume this is not the finalised range before full launch on 1 September. However, it does give us a good insight into the product ranges and offering we can expect from M&S on Ocado after the launch.
“It appears that M&S is focussing on the convenience and grocery products that we are used to seeing in its M&S food halls, such as alcohol, chilled foods and shelf-stable products and we can expect this will be a strong aspect of M&S’ offering. However, there are certain categories where it seems that M&S will need to work harder on if it wants to measure up to Waitrose’s previous offering. This includes investing more in the home care category – something that is an everyday essential and part of many consumers’ shopping baskets.”
NAM Implications:
- M&S obviously have to feel their way forward…
- …and adjust to fit.
- All depends on Waitrose customers willingness to switch.
- Meanwhile, NAMs could benefit from matching the M&S moves…
- (and pointing out obvious gaps)
