Asda named Online Supermarket of the Year

The Leeds-based supermarket beat online retailer Ocado to claim the title. Its online sales growth has outperformed the market in 2020 following a strong performance in 2019 that saw growth of 10 per cent, which was the fastest among the big four.

The rapid rise of online grocery has been a key focus for supermarkets in 2020. Asda increased the number of delivery slots available from 450,000 per week to more than 750,000 in response to the pandemic.

Innovation to drive operational excellence and efficiencies were cited by The Grocer as reasons for the award, after the supermarket made improvements to change the picking process for customer orders, resulting in a 26 per cent increase in the pick rate.

Simon Gregg, vice president of online grocery at Asda, said: “I’m delighted we have been named Online Supermarket of the Year by The Grocer for 2020.

“We continually listen to customers to understand what is most important to them before making improvements to our service. This, coupled with our agile approach to innovation, means we have been able to drive change at pace across home shopping.

“This year has been a year like no other and it’s thanks to the agility and resilience shown by all of our colleagues in our home office and stores that we have been able to meet the demands and challenges this year has brought. Their dedication has enabled us to continue to innovate and grow capacity while ensuring we offer a best-in-class sustainable operation.”