Category Retailer Insights Report: Biscuits in Ocado

This is a summary of the work we have done using hybrid AI/Human analysis of shopper reviews of the sweet biscuit category in Ocado. This analysis uses AI to understand what is new and different across huge volumes of text while the experienced human sifts the output looking for category relevance and actionability.

Highlights

• Ocado has 875k (11.4%) of the 7.7m reviews across all categories in the Top 6 online grocery retailers*.

• The Category has 4k (1%) of the 421k reviews across all brands in Ocado over 2021-23. 

• 85 Biscuit brands have reviews on Ocado with an average of 47.8 reviews per brand

• There is a big opportunity for all brands to improve their review presence in Ocado by getting at least 30 reviews per SKU and the important area to shoppers of the most recent 3 reviews.

• Looking at individual SKUs in the category (see the Appendix for the full category list) 277 of the 308 listed need new reviews to optimise their sales online and in-store (see “How to get more reviews” below).

*Reports are available for the Top 6 grocery retailers (Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Ocado and Waitrose plus Boots and Superdrug)

Brand reviews summary

Bahlsen, Oreo, Border, Cadbury and Nairns have more than the minimum recommended average of 30 reviews per SKU. McVities, Harvey Nichols, Loacker and Daylesford are below that average. Most brands do not have the right level of freshness for their SKU ie less than 182 days old for the oldest of the Top 3 visible reviews. All brands have low (ie 1 or 2 Star) reviews for some SKUs in their Top 3 latest reviews. There is opportunity for all brands to improve the impact of their reviews in Ocado.

Key:

• No. of SKUs - Number of SKUs with at least 1 review
• Ave Star Rating - Average star rating (1-5) of SKUs with reviews
• Total No. of Reviews - Total number of reviews for the brand (min 30 recommended)
• Ave Reviews per SKU - Average number of reviews per SKU for the brand 
• Oldest of Top 3 Reviews - Age in days of the oldest of the last 3 review left ie Top 3 (should be less than 182 days)
• Lowest Rating of Top 3 - Lowest rating of the last 3 reviews left ie Top 3 (should  be representative of the average rating ie less than 1.5 difference to the average)

Top & Bottom 10 SKUs

Key:

• Ave Star Rating - Average star rating (1-5)of the reviews
• Total No. of Reviews - Total number of reviews for the brand (min 30 recommended)
• Oldest of Top 3 in days - Age in days of the oldest of the last 3 review left ie Top 3 (should be less than 182 days)
• Lowest Rating of Top 3 - Lowest rating of the last 3 reviews left ie Top 3 (should  be representative of the average rating ie less than 1.5 difference to the average)

How to get more reviews

Adding reviews to your products is a simple and fast way to increase your rate of sale online and offline. CheckoutSmart can add reviews for any SKU onto all major retailers' sites. 

Contact us on sales@checkoutsmart.com for more information or go to our website for more on Smartreputation and how we work.

Brand top 3 themes

These are the top brand specific topics written about by reviewers:

Top 3 Brand themes example reviews

Cadbury

• Fingers: “Dairy milk fingers are delicious as a snack but I love these to decorate a simple chocolate cake, just apply some chocolate spread and stick around the sides and than you can crush some with a rolling pin and literally throw on top, delicious!”
• Chocolate: “Great option to give the kids when they want a bit of chocolate that isn't over loading them with it! they melt quite easily so can be fairly messy. packets aren't too big and the biscuits have a lovely chocolatey flavour. hard to keep my husband off them, let alone the kids..”
• Snack: “These have been a fantastic snack and favourite for many years. in this packaging they make the perfect packed lunch treat, two biscuits per pack. these taste as good as ever, nice crunchy biscuit with plenty of Cadburys chocolate, a sure winner.”

Border

• Ginger: “I love ginger biscuits and have tried most varieties but these are the best. they are worth the extra cost but I usually stock up when on offer. they have just the right amount of crunch as most ginger biscuits tend to be too hard and taste as good as home made.”
• Selection: “No biscuit left behind here! these borders biscuits are loved by all and each biscuit is delicious, and none are left behind like in other selection boxes. these biscuits are buttery and full of flavour. there is no skimping on the chocolate or the dried fruits. all in all a great selection.”
• Butterscotch: “I love, love butterscotch and these are properly butterscotch , crisp, buttery biscuit with little nubs of butterscotch to surprise you. our favourite biscuits”

Bahlsen

• Chocolate: “these were delicious. I didn't know if the thick chocolate would go well with the wafer, but of course it did. what was I thinking! as with all Bahlsen, I ate with the chocolate on the bottom to avoid crumbles. these will be a regular purchase. now to open the milk chocolate packet.”
• Thick: “much nicer than a Kit kat- lovely biscuit and a nice thick layer of chocolate, a good balance of flavours very similar to their choco Leibniz but much more portable. a firm favourite in my house for many years, always on our shopping list.”
• Mint: “We normally love our Bahlsen dark chocolate biscuits and tried this as our family loves mint . this is a crunchy mint flavour and quite nice and unique. tasty, sweet, and refreshing. would buy again.”

McVities

• Digestive: “You can not beat a mcvitie's chocolate digestive ! there is no alternative that comes close. I like to stock up whenever these are on offer and Ocado often have a good half price offer on the double packs.”
• Hob Nob: “Chocolate hobnobs , what's not to like. my partner said they are perfect to keep in Van for when the going gets tough on site”
• Palm Oil: “When do big brands stop deforestation? there's palm oil in this product. I'd love Ocado to have a filter for' deforestation' or' palm oil'. Of course other products than palm oil also contribute, but palm oil is so common and easy to avoid that a filter like that would be helpful. won't be buying mcvities.”

Own Label (for Ocado this includes M&S)

• M&S: “Like most m&s biscuits, these are delicious. however they come in mini foil packets inside the box (poor packaging), but worst of all are made with palm oil. disappointing.”
• Shortbread: “These are the best shortbread biscuits I've ever tasted. only a few simple ingredients so no nasties here plus it's organic. so yummy it's hard to stop eating them!”
• Almond: “A soft biscuit that crumbles in the mouth. leaving an artificial almond aftertaste. not to my taste. ill stick to Almond biscotti in future.”

NB Regular reporting of new reviews for your category is available from CheckoutSmart for all Categories and retailers.

Brand Strengths and Weaknesses

The strengths and weaknesses are derived using AI NLP analysis comparing reviews for each brand vs the category and using a human to interpret and summarise the results.

Further in depth insights can be obtained by looking across reviews in all retailers multiple categories including recent trends / trends over time. Contact us on sales@checkoutsmart.com for a bespoke proposal against your required scope. 

Latest category themes

Looking at 2023 vs 2022 reviews there is quite a lot of concern about Palm Oil and Price / Shrinkage. McVities suffered the majority of the Palm Oil concerns as noted above under Brand Top 3 themes.

If the recipe’s have been changed to remove Palm Oil then it would make sense to source new reviews to allow shoppers to see relevant opinions. Reviews should always be kept fresh anyway as they become less influential to shoppers after 6 months.

Palm Oil
“I only noticed after I bought these that they contain palm oil and I normally avoid the stuff. it's terrible for the environment and terrible for people, adding to inflammation. they are nice enough biscuits, bit of an artificial almond taste, not too sweet and a nice texture; light and crumbly and also occasional crunch of almonds in there. they are not as good as a buttery biscuit. why do so many biscuits have to contain palm oil. I'd rather have a smaller amount of better quality biscuits, without the nasty palm oil, at the same price.”

Price
“l switched to these from mcvities digestive due to the price , but l have decided that l would rather pay more and have mcvities as these are far to sweet" for my liking. these could be a decent biscuit if they weren't so full of sugar. why does m&s have to make everything so sweet as it often spoils a decent item!!!!"”

Shrinkage
“I love hobnobs they're great. giving a 1 star review for the package shrinkage and new plastic packet. reducing pack size is not cool, and this new pack design has a thicker plastic( so more plastic) than before. also won't stand up.”

M&S Chocolate Tea cakes

These get some recent strong negative feedback which should be addressed with product improvements and fresh reviews:

“bought these as you don't have tunnocks. they're terrible . will not bother again.”

“these are honestly awful, no taste, terrible consistency, dont waste your money.”

Get your own report

Further in depth insights can be obtained by looking across reviews in all retailers multiple categories including recent trends / trends over time.

Contact us on sales@checkoutsmart.com for a bespoke proposal against your required scope.