Tesco is disappointing in its adoption of 404 pages

This is the second in my series of looking at supermarkets and how they use 404 pages to direct users if they get lost and so improve the overall user experience.

The supermarket that started this series off was Asda and the poor or nonexistent 404 pages that I found across a lot of their sites. You can read that post here and if you do it may help you to understand the context of this one.

If you are not sure what 404 pages are and why web sites should have them (especially major UK retailers) then you can read my introduction to 404 pages here.

So last time it was Asda and this time around we are reviewing Tesco’s web sites, the biggest UK supermarket chain.

Tesco’s Web Sites

Tesco doesn’t have as many individual web sites as Asda with around 14 in total, as opposed to Asda’s collection of 25 web sites. I have included each of Tesco’s 14 web sites in the analysis below.

No 404 Page

As with 9 of Asda’s web sites, there are a good proportion of the Tesco sites that do not have a custom 404 page. This means that when a user hits the 404 page they will just see a very unfriendly and unbranded server default 404 page, which is of practically no use to a lost user at all.

The server default 404 page was true of the following Tesco web sites:

1. Tesco Direct

Tesco Direct is a large online catalogue web site with a huge range of products. It is likely that an incorrect link or mistyped URL could result in the user hitting a 404 page, which is an unsightly Internet Information Server (IIS) server default page. Consider the Asda Direct web site from my previous analysis, which shows just how a nice custom 404 page could work for an online catalogue web site with main sections broken down into categories, almost like a site map. This gives users the ability to head to the next most relevant destination after they hit a 404 page rather than just an unfriendly default page.

2. Tesco Get Involved

This is Tesco’s community web site, demonstrating what Tesco is involved in, their charity work and urging us to volunteer. The web site uses the standard IIS 404 page but if you mistyped the URL so perhaps tried http://www.tescogetinvolved.com/Homes.aspx instead of http://www.tescogetinvolved.com/Home.aspx you get an ever more horrible ‘Server error in ‘/’ Application’. Sounds horrendous doesn’t it?

3. The Nutri Centre (Tesco)

The Nutri Centre have several stores within Tesco Extra’s up and down the country. Their web site, however, does not have a custom 404 page and is another odd result if you mistype a URL. For instance, if I mistype the About Us page URL and enter http://www.nutricentre.com/t-abouts.aspx instead of the correct URL of http://www.nutricentre.com/t-about.aspx, I get a page with the content area blank telling me, ‘you are here’ without any message to say what has gone wrong.

In my experience users do try to input URLs directly and can often mistype them. If a page URL is entered that is not recognised then a nice 404 page should appear and not a result that is obviously not intended. If you mistype a URL whilst on a product page then you do get a message telling you that the product could not be found.

The one I find the most surprising from the above list is Tesco Direct, which is a huge web site and could really make use of a decent 404 page to direct users to all the different sections that make up the Tesco Direct site or to complete a search if they cannot find a particular product that they are looking for.

Mixed Results

These next 2 Tesco web site offer some mixed results in that there is a custom 404 page in there somewhere but it is mixed up with server default 404 pages and some other weirdness depending on what you stumble across.

1. Tesco Entertainment

The Tesco Entertainment web site has recently been relaunch and sports a nice new design. Previously, the web site just had a server default 404 error page and so would have appeared in the first section of this post. However, the new web site has a custom 404 page, wahey!

Hold on, don’t get too excited as there is a bit of weirdness ahead. There is a custom 404 page in the Home section that tells me that something is wrong if I try to go to a URL such as http://www.tescoentertainment.com/store/browse/home/testing/. It is not a great example but we’ll take it at this stage.

If you go back to the root of the site and try http://www.tescoentertainment.com/testing/, you get a horrible server default page again. Why doesn’t the correct 404 page display here?

2. Tesco Photo

Tesco Photo is Tesco’s photo processing web site and looks like the older style Tesco web site. There are certainly a couple of odd things that I would hope they could eradicate if Tesco pushed a new photo site live.

The start page is http://www.tescophoto.com/wpp/tesco/welcome.jsp so if we amend that to http://www.tescophoto.com/wpp/tesco/testing we get a nasty server default 404 page. Going to the root (http://www.tescophoto.com/testing) as we did with Tesco Entertainment also produces the same server default 404 page, good consistency so far but bad 404 page.

Let’s just start this next bit by stating that all URLs as far as I could tell by a quick browse ended with an extension of .jsp. If I pretend to mistype a URL such as http://www.tescophoto.com/wpp/tesco/view_tour2.jsp instead of http://www.tescophoto.com/wpp/tesco/view_tour.jsp I do get a custom 404 page (again, why can’t this 404 page display for the entire site?) with a message that tells me to make sure that the URL has the correct extension and goes on to say that all URLs have the extension .html and not .htm.

Not so I’m afraid, as the site uses .jsp and not .html or .htm. Even if I amend my original URL to http://www.tescophoto.com/wpp/tesco/view_tour.html or http://www.tescophoto.com/wpp/tesco/view_tour2.html I am returned to the server default 404 page and lose the slightly nicer custom 404 page.

I know that this is just a case of the Tesco Photo site updating its error messages but I think it does highlight the importance of what you are telling lost users to do. In this case, a user would get so confused by this message and I don’t think it would make any sense to them at all.

So that is 5 web sites out of a total of 14 that either do not have a custom 404 page at all or have mixed results. This equates to 36% of Tesco’’s web sites, which is exactly the same as Asda’s 36% of web sites not having a custom 404 page.

Custom 404 Pages

Right, we are now onto the the next 9 of Tesco’s web sites, which all have custom 404 pages in place. Let’s see how good they are.

1. Tesco

The 404 page on the main Tesco web site is a very basic 404 page but it does say sorry, explains what may have happened and gives you a link to the home page plus a customer service number and another link to an online enquiry form.

The enquiry form link is a bit odd because it takes you to a page with lots of phone numbers and postal addresses but no online enquiry form that I could fine. At the least the home page link does take you to the Tesco home page.

I think that Tesco are missing an opportunity to better direct their site visitors that may be getting lost and perhaps a link to their sitemap page here http://www.tesco.com/shopping/ would be more useful.

2. Tesco Finance

Offers an abrupt, ‘The page you are trying to reach does not exist.’ message and a link back to the Tesco Finance home page. Not the most polite of 404 pages but the main navigation is present, footer links plus a ‘Got a question’ link that opens an FAQ in a new window. Overall it is better than a lot of Tesco’s web sites but could be nicer to people who are a bit lost.

3. Tesco Compare

A reasonable stab at a 404 page with a short message and a link to the site map. Links to the main sections of the web site are presented below the message plus the main navigation and footer is retained so a lost user should be able to find roughly where they need to go.

4. Tesco Insulation

Tesco also sell insulation for the home and the site does have a custom 404 page but in all honesty it is not much better than a server default page. The page is not branded as Tesco but rather as a company called Creo, which I believe must be their hosting provider. The 404 page itself is also not especially helpful in that it has no links back to the home page, or to a sitemap, or to complete a search, and so offers no assistance to help the user in where they might want to go next.

5. Tesco plc

The Tesco plc web site is Tesco’s corporate home, covering their corporate responsibility, investor information and media details. The 404 page for such an important web site is straightforward and contains the details that you would expect including a standard error message with a link back to the home page. The site displays this set within the site navigation so that a user can still navigation to any section, to the sitemap or complete a search.

Overall, this 404 page is absolutely fine.

6. Tesco Diets

The Tesco Diets web site is concerned with online dieting, weight loss and healthy eating. It has a 404 page but this is branded as eDiets and not Tesco Diets. The text on this 404 page is about eDiets including links to the eDiets home page, eDiets news page and an eDiets email address. Clicking on the link to the eDiets home page actually takes the user back to the Tesco Diets home page. Is that confusing for a user do you think? I think so too.

7. Tesco Opticians

The Tesco Opticians web site uses the same layout for their 404 page as the main Tesco web site. So there is some consistency at least between the two web sites, which is a good thing. Other than that the comments are the same in that the 404 page is very basic, it does say sorry, explains what may have happened and gives you a link to the Tesco Opticians home page plus a customer service number. In this case there is no link to an enquiry form.

8. Tesco Energy

Tesco Energy explains iteself as being an energy price comparison and carbon offsetting service. The 404 page displays a logo for Xelector (who much provide the price comparison engine that this web site is based on) and so is not Tesco branded. Furthermore, the 404 page is very basic, it consists of a short message and an email address to contact if you think you have stumbled across an error. However, the email address isn’t Tesco’s either, it is webmaster@xelector.com.

As a user of the Tesco Energy site, I would expect that if I get lost and find myself on the 404 page then I would see a Tesco Energy 404 page with Tesco Energy contact details and/or links back to the Tesco Energy web site. I don’t expect to be presented with whoever Xelector are and what they have to do with Tesco Energy.

In my view, this 404 page does not really help the user at all so there is little point in having it.

9. Tesco Travel Store

The Tesco Travel Store presents another 404 page with no Tesco branding and not much help. The error message tells you to click back or close down your browser (and when I open it again will I go back to the Tesco Travel Store? Not likely) or ‘click here to go back’. The click here link does not work.

I notice that the 404 page has a Lastminute.com favicon and this is consistent with the Tesco Travel Store being powered by Lastminute.com. I would expect a much better 404 page to be honest, as the Lastminute.com web site has quite a good 404 page.

Conclusions

So that concludes my roundup of Tesco’s 14 web sites and their use (or lack of use) of custom 404 pages. Overall, I am really disappointed that such a major UK retailer seems to be struggling with basic good practice in the proper use of 404 pages and the benefits that they offer to users of their web sites.

Considering the 14 web sites, I found 3 sites to have no 404 page, 2 to have a kind of strange halfway house approach to 404 pages and 9 to offer a semblance of a 404 page but Tesco Insulation, Tesco Diets, Tesco Energy and Tesco Travel Store were all awful examples.

From the remaining 5 web sites Tesco.com and Tesco Opticians had OK 404 pages and Tesco Finance, Tesco Compare and Tesco plc were all quite good. So from the original 14 web sites, only 3 were found to have quite good 404 pages but even those could be better in my view.

Next up we’ll have a look at Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Morrison’s.