Most electricity and gas suppliers in the UK have yet to take full advantage of e-commerce, reports FT Energy in its new publication European Utility Retail. FT Energy is a European-based provider of unbiased energy information.
European Utility Retail visited the Web sites of 17 of the UK’s leading energy suppliers to assess their effectiveness at reaching customers. Most offered a few very basic services to residential customers, allowing them, for example, to submit a meter reading online. Business customers were almost completely neglected. In their present state, utility web sites function as little more than online phone directories, giving businesses the numbers to call for actual service. While sixteen of the surveyed sites do offer products to business customers, only four provide even basic tariff information. Some allow small and medium businesses to compare their rates online with those of their competing utilities, but even then the sites don’t always offer comparisons with all competitors. Although some offer online quotations for business customers, almost half offer nothing at all, perhaps assuming that business customers would prefer to negotiate rates in person or by telephone. E-commerce may be more developed for the residential market, but there is still a gap among energy companies.
For more information, contact European Utility Retail.
