Asda making huge update to 850 stores over Christmas to make things 'simpler' for shoppers

The supermarket chain has announced that it will be working to convert its IT systems across its smaller stores as part of its "Project Future" over the Christmas period

Asda will be making huge changes across hundreds of its UK supermarket stores this Christmas.

The supermarket chain has announced that it will be working to convert its IT systems across its smaller stores as part of its "Project Future" over the Christmas period. Asda said it would be working to update 850 of its smaller sites including its petrol stations, small supermarkets, and its Asda Express convenience stores reports Retail Gazette.

The supermarket chain said the work will be done over this year's festive season as a way to minimise disruption. Larger Asda stores will not be impacted as this is where the bulk of its customers shop. Updates to these sites will come in early January when the festive season is over. The supermarket said focusing on smaller stores in the golden quarter was a “sensible and pragmatic” approach, adding: “It was the right thing to do for customers as it will help to give them the best possible Christmas”.

Asda chief digital officer Matt Kelleher said: “We’re continuing to deliver different aspects of the programme at pace, while being mindful of any potential impact on colleagues, customers and suppliers during the busiest period of the year.”

As part of the project, Asda aims to change 2,500 systems as it moves off the infrastructure of former owner Walmart. The supermarket chain was acquired by the Issa brothers and TDR Capital in 2021 for £6.8billion.

Back in January, it was reported that the supermarket chain was still paying Walmart for it's IT system. While the amount Asda was paying Walmart is not known, the extra costs were thought to add additional pressure to the supermarket, which is facing billions of pounds worth of debt.

The supermarket said the changes will allow it to make improvements quickly and fine-tune its operations to give it “the best systems in the grocery sector”. So far, Asda has completed the migration onto several new systems including finance, checkouts, HR and payroll, CRM, depots, its clothing brand George.com, and a new store picking system.

The updates have seen it introduce 16,500 new checkouts and 28,000 Scan & Go devices across its stores in the last nine months. The updates will likely see more new checkouts and Scan & Go Devices introduced to Asda stores going forward. Kevin Besford, Asda senior director of retail transformation previously said the the new IT systems and touchscreen checkout services would improve the shopping experience for both shoppers and Asda staff and make it "simpler" overall.

Asda has also converted 20 depots and migrated 9.6 million historic George orders to a new online platform. It has also launched a new store picking system in a bid to "streamline the processing" of over four million items daily from delivery to store shelves.