Asda is to invest £700m in a number of initiatives including same-day delivery for food orders, click-and-collect and a raft of new stores.

The grocer will allow shoppers to collect their online food orders from store on the same day from next month as click-and-collect becomes an increasingly important channel for Asda. Shoppers will be able to order by 10am on the day and collect in store by 2pm.

Retail Week revealed last year that Asda was planning to launch same-day delivery this year and the move is a first for a physical supermarket. Online grocer Ocado already offers the service.

Asda home shopping director Kieran Shanahan said the grocer is using learnings from parent Walmart in the US will look to launch the service later this year.

Asda also plans to offer click-and-collect for non-food and George fashion from all 568 of its stores and will double the numnber of sites shoppers can collect grocery orders to 200 this year.

The retailer has also opened collection points away from stores on a business park in Reading, a park-and-ride facility in Nottingham and Asda petrol stations. It is also mulling opening sites at commuter sites such as train stations and last month signed a deal with CollectPlus to allow shoppers to collect online non-food orders at 5,000 convenience stores.

It also opened the next version of its click-and-collect drive thru operation in York last week. The collection points allow shoppers to chose whether to pick up their goods in the car park by scanning a barcode at a kiosk or within the store.

Asda chief executive Andy Clarke said: “This year there will be more invested in digital than previous years, but we are still committed to opening stores.”

Asda will also open 12 new stores this year adding 340,000 sq ft to its store estate. This will be in the form of five new smaller format supermarkets, five large Asda Supercentres and two Asda Living stores.

Asda also plans to increase the cut off for next day delivery of online order to midnight by the end of May.

More than half of the £700m investment is understood to be in new stores.

  • Polish delivery firm InPost has launched in the UK and will allow shoppers to collect online purchases at petrol stations and convenience stores. The company has partnered with online stores which use CityLink to deliver orders and is in talks with multiple retailers to offer the service which is available at 114 locker sites nationally at retailers including Mace and Shell. InPost will square up to other similar providers in the UK including CollectPlus.

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