Asda is embarking on a major expansion of its online shopping service after months of retrenchment spent improving customer service.
Starting from August, an additional 21 stores will offer online shopping in a phased rollout, with a particular focus on Scotland, said director of e-commerce Katherine Paterson.
“This will take us from 32 stores covering 30% of the country to 53 stores covering almost 40% of the UK over a 12-week period.”
Scotland was targeted after the number of customers shopping online from Asda Hamilton quadrupled after six months of launching the service.
The online range has also
doubled from 10,000 to 20,000 lines, and now includes a larger range of general merchandise products such as DVD players and cookware, she added.
Although Asda does not publish financial information relating to Asda.com, online basket spend was three times higher than average store spend and customer numbers had doubled in the last 12 months, she claimed. “We’ve focused on improving the usability of the service. Customer satisfaction scores have taken a big leap as have customer retention rates. We have very loyal customers in home shopping and are opening more slots to extend a winning formula.”
The rollout will create 422 new jobs at the new home shopping stores, including 21 new home shopping managers.
The telephone ordering service, only used by 1% of customers, will be scrapped.
n Separately, Sainsbury said that it was closing down its Park Royal picking centre for its online shopping operation in West London so that it could focus exclusively on a store-picking model.
Elaine Watson
Starting from August, an additional 21 stores will offer online shopping in a phased rollout, with a particular focus on Scotland, said director of e-commerce Katherine Paterson.
“This will take us from 32 stores covering 30% of the country to 53 stores covering almost 40% of the UK over a 12-week period.”
Scotland was targeted after the number of customers shopping online from Asda Hamilton quadrupled after six months of launching the service.
The online range has also
doubled from 10,000 to 20,000 lines, and now includes a larger range of general merchandise products such as DVD players and cookware, she added.
Although Asda does not publish financial information relating to Asda.com, online basket spend was three times higher than average store spend and customer numbers had doubled in the last 12 months, she claimed. “We’ve focused on improving the usability of the service. Customer satisfaction scores have taken a big leap as have customer retention rates. We have very loyal customers in home shopping and are opening more slots to extend a winning formula.”
The rollout will create 422 new jobs at the new home shopping stores, including 21 new home shopping managers.
The telephone ordering service, only used by 1% of customers, will be scrapped.
Elaine Watson
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