Asda has been keeping products at ‘Rollback’ Prices for far shorter periods than suggested in its communications around the campaign, The Grocer can reveal.
And once those products have been removed from the promotion, the supermarket has also been putting them back up to their pre-Rollback price, or even higher in some cases, rather than selling them at a permanently lower price as promised.
When Asda announced that it was bringing back its iconic ‘Rollback’ promotions in January as part of executive chairman Allan Leighton’s plans to turn the struggling supermarket chain around, campaign communications vowed that the Rollback pricing initiative involved moving away from three or four-week promotion cycles to 12 weeks.
However, of the 4,000 products in the initial campaign launch when Asda launched it on 30 January, only about 75 (1.8%) remained on sale at Rollback price by 2 April. The rest had been removed from the promotion in fewer than 10 weeks, with about 2,540 of the original list (63%) removed in four weeks or fewer.
Rollback campaign reduced
Asda has also been rotating products in the Rollback campaign by adding new ones as others are removed. On 21 March, it said: “This latest wave of Rollback price cuts means nearly 10,000 products – almost a third of Asda’s entire range – has been reduced in price since Asda brought back its iconic proposition at the end of January.”
However, comprehensive analysis of Asda price movements between 29 January and 2 April found the number of Rollback products available at any one time did not grow significantly over the period. While an accumulative total of 10,310 products had been in the Rollback campaign at some point since the promotion started, the most it offered at any one time was just 4,260.
Only 3,366 Rollback prices remained active by the end of the period, 500 fewer than at launch.
| Date | Number of Rollback products available |
|---|---|
| 29/01/2025 | 3,953 |
| 05/02/2025 | 4,260 |
| 12/02/2025 | 4,239 |
| 19/02/2025 | 4,140 |
| 26/02/2025 | 3,293 |
| 05/03/2025 | 3,657 |
| 12/03/2025 | 3,728 |
| 19/03/2025 | 3,704 |
| 26/03/2025 | 3,689 |
| 02/04/2025 | 3,366 |
This means that 6,940 products had been removed from the campaign in total, including products which had been added in the weeks after the promotion launched. Of those 6,940 products, 86% (5,949) were being sold at a Rollback price for a period of four weeks or less.
| Weeks | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Products removed from Rollback pricing since the campaign started | 499 | 490 | 907 | 4,053 | 658 | 249 | 13 | 44 | 27 | 6,940 |
‘Permanently lower Asda Price’?
Asda has also claimed that, once removed from the Rollback promotion, products will move to a permanently lower ‘Asda Price’, rather than go back up to their pre-Rollback price. In an investor presentation on 14 March, the supermarket said Rollback involved “Moving away from three- to four-week promo cycles to a 12-week ‘rollback’ to a permanently lower Asda Price.”
The launch announcement in January stated: “Asda will add thousands more products to Rollback at regular intervals during the year as part of its plan to move its entire range to a new low ‘Asda Price’.”
Asda chief customer officer David Hills explained at the time: “Rollback prices will last for up to 12 weeks before moving to a new ‘Asda Price’ so that products won’t go back to the price they were before – meaning we’ll continue to offer unbeatable value to our customers.”
However, of the total 6,940 products removed by 2 April, more than one third had either returned to the previous price or actually increased in price. In total 1,765 – just over 25% – moved back up to the claimed ‘was’ price in the Rollback promotion, while another 628 (9%), were on sale for more than the advertised ‘was’ price.
Asda said that still meant two-thirds had been moved to a lower than pre-Rollback price, as promised.
It added its communications around the campaign had said the promotional cycle would be up to 12 weeks, and this remained correct.
‘No need’ for Ts & Cs
Asda has also not published terms and conditions for the Rollback promotions, arguing there is no specific need. It said relevant terms and conditions were included for advertisements which might feature products on Rollback, but not explicitly for Rollback itself.
The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) says marketers claiming customers can make a saving must ensure they do not mislead.
And there is also no strict legal requirement to publish the duration of a promotion as long as statements are not misleading and consumers are given the information they need to evaluate the offer, according to Tom Smith, competition and consumer lawyer at Geradin Partners and former CMA director.
Guidelines set by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute in 2016 suggest retailers should ask themselves three questions of promotions: “Is any information (however it is given) false? Even if the information is factually correct, will it, or the way in which it is presented, deceive or be likely to deceive? Is information that a consumer needs to know omitted, hidden, or given in a manner that is unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely?
“If any of your answers are ‘Yes’, or if you have any doubts, you should change your pricing promotion,” the guidelines state.
The supermarket insists it was always its intention to move to everyday low pricing over a period of time, claiming the ambition was to have all lines at the new Asda Price by the end of next year.
“Since the relaunch of Rollback we have been very clear that this is a long-term commitment to bring prices down and that we’re not looking for a ‘quick fix’,” said an Asda spokesperson.
“Whilst we have a long way to go, we have started as we mean to go on by reducing the prices of over 10,000 products in the first few months, and products are staying lower for longer on Rollback compared to our previous activity.
“This shift in strategy is already showing up for our customers, with Asda consistently recognised as the best value supermarket in Which? and The Grocer price comparison surveys.”
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