Asda fights poor sales with best price guarantee
ASDA yesterday unveiled a money-back price guarantee after poor sales growth.
The chain is offering to refund shoppers who find that a basket of comparable goods would have been cheaper at Tesco, Morrisons or Sainsbury’s. Asda increased its sales by only 2.5 per cent in the 12 weeks to 28 April, compared with rises of 6.6 per cent for Wm Morrison, 4.1 per cent for J Sainsbury and 3.2 per cent at Tesco, according to Kantar Worldpanel.
Its position as Britain’s second-biggest supermarket behind Tesco is under attack from Sainsbury’s, which raised its market share from 16.2 per cent to 16.4 per cent. Asda overtook Sainsbury’s in 2003.
Asda chief executive Andy Bond said: “From today, Asda cannot, and will not, be beaten on price,” he said. “Our grocery guarantee puts an end to the phoney price wars that most shoppers are sick of.”
Customers will be invited to visit Asda’s website to enter a code found on receipts. The website, using data from Mysupermarket.com, will calculate whether their shopping would have been cheaper at Tesco, Sainsbury’s or Morrisons. If so, shoppers will be refunded the difference.