McDonald’s makes a ‘disastrous’ Web debut
McDonald’s website has been branded “disastrous” in what is believed to be the first audit of UK retailers’ online ventures.
The survey, compiled exclusively for Marketing Week by digital consultancy BrandNet, looks at retail websites on the Internet. In association with online retail consultancy Echochamber.com, BrandNet ranked the websites of the top 50 retailers, based on advertising spend for 1999 according to AC Nielsen.
McDonald’s appears 41st in the table – the lowest ranked of all the fast food chains. In contrast, Burger King was 20th, Pizza Hut 28th and KFC 30th.
The survey found fast food retailers use the Internet predominantly as a shop window to add value to the brand, in the absence of e-commerce strategies.
But BrandNet found the McDonald’s site to be “poorly branded” with limited content and it failed to feature in-store promotions. A spokesman for McDonald’s says the site has not yet been fully rolled out in the UK.
Tesco.com topped the table. It was described as “a very impressive, well laid-out site” with secure online buying and interesting content.
Conversely, Marks & Spencer’s woes were highlighted in the survey. Its site was ranked 29th and it was described as poor, frustrating and unreliable.
