Asda is launching an offensive on Sainsbury's and Tesco's online market share with plans to take its service national from next year.

Asda.com is currently serviced by 80 stores across the country. However, this will be increased to 100 supermarkets by the end of the year, equating to 50% national coverage. It will then roll out to cover about 80% of the country next year, said a spokesman.

Asda would still trail Tesco, which has almost total coverage of the UK, but it would be on a par with Sainsbury's. It could also nudge ahead of Ocado to become one of the main UK online grocery businesses.

Last week, Asda president Andy Bond said that he was very confident about Asda's online food business, despite it being behind its rivals. He added that, in comparison, he was only "reasonably confident" about creating an online general merchandise website, following the unveiling of Tesco's non food home shopping website last week (The Grocer,

2 September, p8).

However, Asda has already begun trialling a range of about 1,500 smaller non food items, such as bath towels and kitchenware, which can be bought alongside its groceries on Asda.com.

Meanwhile, Asda is to open its first new-build standalone George store in November as it continues trials of the format. The Southend store will sell no menswear, but will focus on Asda's 'fast fashion' lines instead. The 13,000 sq ft site will be fitted out with a more contemporary look, with a closer resemblance to high street fashion than supermarket clothing, said a spokeswoman.

The redesign will be repeated at the site of its first George store in Croydon later in the month. If successful, elements of the new look would be used to rebrand the rest of the George standalone stores.

It will be its 12th store, following an opening in Middlesbrough next week. A roll-out of the format beyond this is currently on hold, although Bond has said that he believes that at least one of Asda's George, Essentials and Living formats could become a national chain.

Topics