Asda is planning its biggest online expansion to date, in a bid to close the gap on Tesco.

The retailer aims to generate £1 billion in online sales by 2011, and will offer more than 750,000 non-food products on the web from the summer as part of its Asda Direct service.

In addition to its non-food additions, Asda is planning to expand its home shopping business so that 97 per cent of the UK is covered by the end of 2008. At the moment, only two-thirds of UK homes are eligible for Asda’s delivery service.

The chain will also introduce a 1,000-page catalogue and kiosk service later this year,

Speaking to the TimesOnline, chief executive Andy Bond said: “For a long time the internet boom has been one where you could see how you could sell stuff, but not how you could make money.

“We now believe the economics are such that you can truly make a profit. Maybe we could have gone faster than we have, but we could have lost a lot more money.”

He added: “We won’t be getting into any new categories - we are not going to start selling cars - but this allows us to expand the breadth and depth of our offer.”

Topics