Dobbies topped the table of the best-performing websites in the garden centre category in the first quarter, ahead of the Easter peak.
Sitemorse says that when testing the UK's top 500 retail websites in Q1 Tesco-owned Dobbies had a score of 6.57 out of 10, which places it well ahead of major rival Wyevale Garden Centres that managed to score just 4.46.

Testing of the 500 sites is undertaken by Sitemorse using software that reads the first 125 pages of each retailer's website to generate a ranked table based on checks on quality, user experience, accessibility, performance and seo capability.

Among the 11 garden centre websites tested, Haskins delivered the second best score, with a creditable 5.48, and was followed by Squire's and Klondyke with 4.91. These scores sit well with those achieved by retailers in other sectors, says Sitemorse.

It also notes that three of the top five sites are transactional, which it says is impressive when considering that this is a category that does not typically have a high level of online sales versus store revenues.

Sitemorse says that regardless of whether the sites are transactional or not, all these top five garden centre retailers clearly recognise the benefit of keeping a well-maintained online presence that reflects well on their brands, across all channels.