Home improvement sites bottom of online shops survey
Published: 28 October 2011
B&Q has been named the worst online shop by the latest Which? customer survey, closely followed by Homebase.
More than 11,000 Which? members rated 78 sites, looking at price, product range and delivery performance.
B&Q's transactional site diy.com was given the lowest customer score of 50, while Homebase.co.uk received a score of 52, based on Which? members' overall satisfaction with the site and the likelihood of them recommending it to a friend.
In the home and garden category, John Lewis came out on top, followed by Lakeland and then Amazon. Screwfix, Sainsbury's and Ikea also managed to place above Homebase and B&Q.
11% of Which? members said they had problems with their last online home and garden purchase. Customers also said that delivery issues such as delays and over-packaging were the biggest bugbears when shopping online.
Skin and beauty label Liz Earle topped the overall list with a customer score of 94, followed by cycle shop ChainReactionCycles.com with a score of 93. The only non-specialist site in the top five overall was JohnLewis.com, which came third with a score of 88.
Argos was found further up the chart than stablemate Homebase, in 57th place, while Wickes came in at joint 63rd place. Screwfix fared better than B&Q, at 13th place with a customer score of 83.