If you want to avoid the crowds while you hunt for great value groceries, select a wide range of products or get fast, trackable delivery, Mozo's Experts can help you out. They’ve done the research hard yards and revealed Australia's best online grocery services for the 2021 Mozo Experts Choice Awards.
For eight years now, the Mozo Experts Choice Awards have revealed the best banking products, credit cards, insurance companies and energy providers, as well as other household services like grocery delivery. For a second year, we’ve scoured the digital supermarket shelves and dug through data analysis to crown Australia’s Best Online Grocery Service providers.
“Finding the best place to shop for your groceries online is more imperative than ever, with online shopping surging over the last year as consumers have been practicing social distancing,” Mozo Awards Judge Peter Marshall said.
“While there has been a growth in online grocery services, Woolworths and Coles were the only providers that qualified for assessment in these awards. This is because they are the only grocery service providers that are able to offer an extensive enough range of products to shoppers across Australia,” Marshall said.
For details on how we crunched the numbers and determined the winners see the 2021 Online Grocery Service methodology report.
Give a huge round of applause to Woolworths, the supermarket giant that took out the top spot in every category assessed for these awards. No matter whether we analysed price, range, ease of ordering or flexibility of delivery service, Woolworths just couldn't be beaten. Thus, Woolies has been deservingly crowned our Online Grocery Service of the Year.
Finding the cheapest online groceries can be a challenge. For this award category, Mozo's judges compared prices for a basket of 252 grocery items and found Woolworths came out cheaper overall. The goods represented a cross-section of groceries households might purchase regularly, and included both big brand and home brand versions where equivalent products could be identified. Our Experts collected data on 5 dates across 11 locations including capital cities and major regional centres. The prices were averaged, then combined into an annual grocery cost figure using published statistics on the spending patterns of the average Australian household.
Having a wide selection of products to choose from is important when you’re shopping for particular brands or goods. To find out which online grocery service offers the widest product range, our Experts counted the number of different items available including different varieties and brands across 11 product categories. This included categories like fruit, cheese, bakery items, hair care and cleaning materials. Woolworths had a decisive advantage in almost every category.
Finding an online grocery provider that offers a seamless user experience from the start of your shop to checkout is a major factor to consider for Aussies buying groceries online. To find the best ordering experience, the judges considered how easily they could use the website to locate items, the amount of information about products and how it’s displayed, and the range of payment options available. While the functionality offered by the two major national services was broadly similar, Woolworths edged ahead in several key areas by having an extra payment option, another way to filter search results and smarter sorting.
You want to get your groceries delivered with the most convenience for the least cost. In this award category, the judges assessed the cost of delivery as well as the level of choice and flexibility offered to customers. They found Woolworths offered a superior delivery service based on cost and the ability to track the driver on their live map service.
The Mozo Experts Choice Awards recognise products that deliver great value and are beneficial to Australians. Our experts base their decision on hard-nosed calculations of value to the consumer, using Mozo’s extensive product database and expert research tools. Providers do not pay to be in the running for any awards, and Mozo doesn’t play favourites when it comes to commercial relationships.
Our methodology report for the Mozo Experts Choice Online Grocery Service Awards is available for you to read so you can understand the full picture of the judging and awards process. It includes criteria for each award category and lists all providers considered for awards.
In carrying out the Mozo Experts Choice Awards in Online Grocery Service, we analysed a basket of 252 goods that represent typical household purchases, with each item falling into a category which the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) deemed as common inclusions in a household shop.
A mixture of store brand and leading brand items were used to form the basis of a price comparison. Store brand products chosen were equivalent in quality and size (by weight, volume or quantity depending on the product). In cases where these products weren’t equal in size, the price of the smaller item was adjusted to match the quantity of the larger item. Leading brand products chosen were the exact same item from each service. Only products where comparable items could be found across all services assessed were considered.
Mozo has been researching and comparing financial products since 2008, and thousands of Australians use our comparison services each month. Our research team is headed by our Data Services Director and Product Data Manager who have a combined 31 years experience in online financial comparison.