Essential reading for retailers and suppliers in the home improvement market

Diy retailer websites fail to impress

Published: 24 August 2007
August's website rankings of 100 retailers' sites has put diy retailers among the worst performers.
A comprehensive list of 100 sites, which includes not only the largest players but also some of the smaller specialist online merchants, has been created by The Retail Bulletin, and website testing company SiteMorse.

SiteMorse used its own automated testing of the first 125 pages of each retailer's site to generate a ranked table.

This showed that only seven sites achieved what SiteMorse regards as a good score of seven out of 10.

Wine merchant Majestic scored 8.75 out of 10, followed by Morrisons, Tesco Direct and Next.

Diy retailers fared a lot worse.
Wickes scored 4.34 (with a ranking of 31); Focus DIY 3.09 (54th); Homebase 2.62 (62nd); Argos 2.42 (67th); Robert Dyas 2.27 (71st); and B&Q 1.25 (91st).

Screwfix's site was excluded from the ranking because it 'either was not available or it is reliant on 'assistive' technology, which SiteMorse believes breaks the general rules of accessibility of internet sites.'

General retailers Woolworths and John Lewis scored 4.60 and 4.44 and were ranked 27th and 28th respectively.

All sites were also marked on accessibility for the visually impaired. The top retailer, Majestic scored 0% while diy retailer, and the worst among its rivals, was Focus DIY with 97.66% pages failing.

Lawrence Shaw, founder of SiteMorse, said in general terms the retail sector falls short: "Only 25% of the 100 sites achieved more than a 50% score (five out of 10), which considering this is a sector that needs to get it right online is poor as it means 75% simply didn't do very well."

Comments


(Your email address will not be published)
7 + 1 =  
Already Registered?
Sign In
Not Yet Registered?
Register
Printable View E-mail Bookmark
*

Latest reader comments

re: Latest update on Green Homes Grant and implications for homeowners and landlords

John Hart
After applying for a green homes how long will it take for a decision? thanks...

re: SX Rainproof Exterior Caulk

Wally
I need the exterior sx rain resistant caulk! Can't get it anywhere so please help! How can I order it? Need it yesterday...

re: BCT can replicate any material in a ceramic tile

Christina Tiritanou
Not sure if you can help as I require a tile which has the measurements of 6”x 6”? Thank you....

re: Latest update on Green Homes Grant and implications for homeowners and landlords

colin thompson
SarahVery clear and helpful information.Thanks...

Most read stories