Asda

Name: Jon Bell

Job title: Asda senior director of e-commerce operations

You owed much of your win to excellent customer service. What have you been doing recently to drive this? That is great to hear as we have worked really hard to improve service over the last few months. As part of our Make Us Proud initiative we have given a lot of training to our whole team of e-commerce colleagues, from ensuring in-store e-commerce traders are always picking the best-quality products with the longest shelf life to getting our drivers to really show their personality on the doorstep.

The 5p carrier bag charge came into force in England this week. How are you managing this? It has gone pretty smoothly so far. We were able to take on board the learnings we have gained from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We have a 40p flat rate for bags and customers can opt in or opt for a bagless option. It is broadly half and half at the moment, but what we have seen in other parts of the UK is that the charge acts as a catalyst for shoppers to go bagless.

What do you think about Amazon launching one-hour chilled and frozen deliveries in Birmingham and have you checked it out? Obviously it is a challenge for all existing retailers and we are watching it with great interest. Of course we have used it, you have to understand what your competitors are doing.

So what is the key focus for Asda in terms of e-commerce? Is it click & collect or home delivery? We are proud to have more collection points than any other retailer, whether that is our petrol stations, lockers at our stores or other locations. Our focus is all about the customer, whether that’s click & collect or home delivery, and we are making good progress. Online we are 100% of the customer’s experience - if you get that wrong for one customer that is one too many.

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