Asda takes on Amazon with online book launch

The pre-Christmas launch by the Wal-Mart-owned grocer will send shivers down the spine of specialist booksellers WHSmith, Waterstone’s and Borders, which face one of the toughest trading periods for years.

Asda director of multichannel trading Tony Prescott said he was gunning for some of Amazon’s UK market share. “Surely Amazon cannot maintain that forever. There is a big market for someone selling books online and why not Asda?” he said.

Asda will sell books online at about half the recommended retail price. Prescott said:“It is the kind of product that the Asda customer will buy. We sell music, videos and games and it is a logical extension to the entertainment category.”

Tesco sells more than 500,000 book titles online and Waterstone’s sells more than 2.5 million online. Borders UK, which at present sells books online in partnership with Amazon, will launch its own transactional web site in the spring, carrying more than 1 million titles.

Prescott also said that Asda is considering introducing social networking when it relaunches its web site next year, but said the main focus was to deliver an improved and integrated general merchandise and grocery offer online.

Separately, Asda chief operating officer David Cheesewright is to return to Wal-Mart Canada to become president and chief executive of its Canadian business. No replacement has been named.

> Asda also plans to make its Hounslow store in west London the UK’s first grocery store to have an out-of-hours pharmacy. The opening is expected next year.