Argos Edges Ahead of Tesco in Retailers’ Digital Capability Ranking
Argos has just narrowly surpassed Tesco to claim the top spot in the Digital Capability Index (DCI), a fresh assessment by Retail Week and The Grocer that evaluates 65 leading high-street retailers based on how closely their shopping features align with what consumers actually want when shopping in-store and online.
For the full findings, you can read the complete DCI report here.
Argos, a long-time pioneer of omnichannel shopping, demonstrated the most comprehensive set of features that match consumer preferences for both physical store visits and online shopping. This comes as Argos prepares to launch a marketplace to broaden its product range as part of a multi-year transformation plan. The move helped Argos outrank Tesco in the final rankings.
Graham Biggart, Argos’ managing director, commented, “This is a fantastic recognition of our ongoing transformation at Argos—focusing on great products, strong value, and a shopping experience that’s fast and effortless. That’s what drives us every day.” He added that over the past year the team has invested to speed up and simplify the shopping experience, and the public response has been overwhelmingly positive. With more than a billion website visits annually and a trusted brand, Argos is committed to expanding its product range, boosting convenience, and delivering even greater value.
Tesco, still the top-scoring grocer, remains Britain’s largest retailer and operates the country’s most extensive loyalty program, Clubcard, with 24 million members and widely used in over 80% of Tesco transactions. Tesco has consistently been at the forefront of innovation, introducing features such as its rapid delivery service Whoosh, a shopper membership scheme to save on online delivery, and an online marketplace where customers can order non-grocery items alongside their weekly shop.
Among the broader group, seven of the major grocers make the top 20 in the overall retailer rankings. While some perform well across multiple metrics—including self-checkout options and scan-and-shop features that have become industry standards—others shine in specific areas.
Sainsbury’s ranks fifth among all retailers on digital capability. The Grocer had previously disclosed that Sainsbury’s plans to overhaul technology, data, store leadership, and Argos teams as part of its Next Level strategy. In this ranking, Sainsbury’s outperformed Tesco in customer experience and communications, offering more customer-contact channels aligned with how shoppers prefer to engage.
Personalization scores were led jointly by Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, with Tesco also performing strongly. Waitrose had recently announced a leadership restructuring aimed at expanding personalization capabilities and online offerings.
Lidl and Co-op scored highly for customer communication, aided by accessible phone support—an important feature for about 45% of shoppers. Marks & Spencer and Iceland stood out due to the breadth of payment options they provide.
Rounding out the top five are Adidas and IKEA.
Argos’ elevated standing reflects its sophisticated shopping operations on the high street, including the option for same-day delivery, a capability still relatively rare among brick-and-mortar brands. The retailer also boasted the highest-visited website among those tracked by Similarweb.
Additionally, Argos and Sainsbury’s are among the few retailers openly advertising British Sign Language (BSL) as a customer-service option. The data, collected in October–November of the previous year, does not reflect Argos’ more recent marketplace rollout, which would likely further boost its score.
What is the Digital Capability Index?
The DCI is a joint effort by Retail Week and The Grocer that blends objective capability measures—such as returns options, advertised delivery speeds, and payment features—with a representative survey of 2,000 British adults conducted by Find Out Now.
Features are grouped into five sections and weighted according to how much consumers value them in practice. Each retailer receives a final score that determines its ranking. Notably, for the grocery-focused portion, the index evaluated features like scan-and-shop and advertised online delivery windows rather than the broader order-fulfillment category used for non-grocery retailers.
Analytics from Similarweb, covering website and app usage and engagement, fed into the ranking as well.
It’s important to note that the DCI measures how well a brand’s advertised capabilities align with consumer priorities, not a pure measure of digital strength.
Earlier this year, the data highlighted that loyalty programs and personalized discounts across both online and offline channels are particularly valuable to shoppers, a trend that benefits retailers like Tesco.
The index also revealed a gap between what shoppers expect and what brands can realistically deliver. For instance, free online returns emerged as the most demanded feature in the order-fulfilment category, a financially challenging expectation for some retailers, especially fashion brands.
Some of these expectations appear influenced by the leading online retailer Amazon, which is not included in the index due to its lack of a branded physical store network.
In addition, generative AI features were not a priority for shoppers; only a very small fraction of Britons view AI chatbot assistance as crucial for grocery shopping. Consequently, brands that have rolled out consumer-facing AI features didn’t gain much in the overall score.
Five sections underpin the DCI: order fulfilment (grocery for supermarkets), checkout and payment, customer service and experience, personalisation, and web traffic (as measured by Similarweb).
The complete results, methodology, and the top 30 retailer rankings are available in the full report.
Would you like a quick summary of the key takeaways or a side-by-side, beginner-friendly breakdown of how each section impacts the final scores?
