Asda has reported sales up by 8.4% in the first quarter, its twelfth successive quarter outperforming the market. This, says Asda, is due to three key elements — outstanding value, improving quality and the use of customer insight to drive product innovation and offers.
“Understanding how customer behaviour is changing and being able to respond quickly has never been more important than in the current economic environment,” the retailer says. “This customer insight has a direct impact on product innovation and offer.”
A further extension of the Asda Direct catalogue and of its online offer is now under development, in response to customer demand, the company says:
The supermarket is bringing great value food and clothing to more and more customers through a combination of new store openings, greater accessibility to the grocery home shopping service, and further extension of the Asda Direct catalogue and online offer.
The Asda Home Shopping business is the second largest in the UK and sales through the grocery home shopping site increased by almost 50% compared to the same quarter last year. Coverage has now been extended, with 94% of UK households now able to access the service. Customers in towns like Inverness and Winchester can now benefit from Asda’s low prices and good quality, even though they don’t yet have a store nearby.
A newly developed web platform will be available to all customers by the end of June that offers significant improvements including being able to place an order up to 10pm the day before delivery. The company is also hoping to trial a new dedicated home shopping centre concept later the is summer in Yorkshire.
“Customers continue to tell us what’s important to them, and we have hit the sweet spot by finding the right balance between lowering prices, improving quality and reducing our costs. As a result we are winning even more customers and we’re gaining them from all of our competitors,” says Asda’s chief financial officer, Judith McKenna.
