At Last! Shopping Can Be Easy!!! (asda.co.uk)

Member Name: andy0304

Product:	asda.co.uk
Date:	29/12/04 (11876 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Usual Asda Prices, Time Slot for Delivery, Reasonably Priced Delviery

Disadvantages: Not knowing if a product is out of stock

In light of a recent Christmas Rap from Waynehorrigan I felt I just had to review another online service, so decided this time it would be the online shopping service from ASDA.

I first started using Asda.co.uk just over a year ago at Christmas 2003 because I ad heard many good things about them and as I was feeling a bit lazy that day we decided to give online supermarket shopping a go. Well just over 12 months later and now I use it about once a month. How lazy is that?

The actual website itself has its moments when it can be really slow, which is a bit of a downside to it. Although in the defence of the ASDA online team I will say that I feel it has been improved over the past few months and not so bad these days.

When you first are presented with the homepage of asda.co.uk you get various options to choose from, menus down the left hand side, heading across the top and icons in the middle. The menu options down the left hand side give you options to access some of the other parts of their website other than shopping. The options are: Home Shopping, ASDA Financial Services, Competitions and Rules, ASDA Wine, Graduate Scheme, Healthy Living, Ringtones, Big Healthy Eat, Extra Special, Your Local Store, Privacy and Security. These options are just plain and simple links that give you access to these areas.

The heading across the top include some of those already seen on the left such as the home shopping button, but also include: Jobs at ASDA, Press Centre as well as Customer Services. As I said there is also links in the centre of the page, these are presented to you in the form of a small picture and advertise special offers, financial services as well as the home shopping button. So as you can see if it is home shopping you are looking for then you cannot fail to find access to that part of the site. Clicking on any of the special offers will take you direct into that part of the online shop in order for you to make your purchase.

Whilst you are online shopping for your groceries I would suggest you take a look at the financial services options as well. I have to say I was very surprised to see some of the services that you can now get from a store that was once only a food supermarket. This includes insurance for Cars, Pets, Travel, Home and life insurance. However whilst writing this review I have also found out that you can now also get a Credit Card from ASDA, but it is from them well know store card finance people GE Capital, so just be cautious.

Anyway as far as the home shopping goes it is very simple, and pretty much any body could do it. The only down side is that some of the delivery slots can be very popular and you therefore may have to pick a delivery slot that is not as convenient to you as you wanted. However I have recently received an email from them telling me that they have improved their services for delivery and now offer more services than before. Result!

After you have clicked one of the home shopping buttons you are taken through to their online store; however have one question to answer first of all. The first page gives you the option to enter you details if you have registered before or alternatively to enter your postcode to see if they deliver in your area. If you are not confident enough that you feel you will be able to use the online shop without help it is at this point there is the link to click for help on online shopping. But trust me on this one, although the first time is time consuming it is very simple.

After entering your postcode you are taken for a very simple form that asks you for some details in order to register with asda.co.uk, you have to register before you can book delivery with them. To register with them you will also need to pick your self a pin number which you will use in conjunction with your email address to log onto the site from then on. Once you have completed all your details ASDA will email you to confirm these details to you, just in case you have forgotten what you choose. But don’t worry if you forget your pin number, I have before, all you do is give customer services a call and they are more than happy to reset it for you in just a couple of minutes.

Ok, so now the boring part is done and you can get on with the shopping. After registering you are taken through to the online store, and at this point you have a couple of further options. Bear in mind once you have registered this is the screen you will see after you have registered with them and logged in each time. The options you are presented with are to Start Shopping, Book a Delivery Slot, and View Previous Details or to Amend Your Details. It is recommended by ASDA, and I would agree, that you should book yourself a delivery slot before you go shopping. They hold your slot for three hours whilst you do your shopping so it does make sense.

To book your delivery slot all you do is click the book delivery slot button and you are presented with a small calendar. On this calendar it will show you all the available delivery days for your area, click on the day you want and you will then be shown all the times available in 2 hour intervals. This does help as it means you won’t have to sit in all day to wait for your delivery. They also deliver up till 10pm at night, so for those of you that have to work all day can still get a late delivery of your shopping.

So you have booked your delivery it is time to go shopping. The thing that I find takes the time the first time is finding your way around. Not everything can be found under the heading you would expect to find it, but you will get used to that. However, if you are short of time and wish to search for products directly then you can type them into the product search box in the top left of the screen. Alternatively just work you way though the product groups down the left hand side and then each of the sub groups presented and just shop as normal. When you have found the items you want you simply click the ‘add to trolley’ option to add these items to your purchase.

After you have picked up all your items and placed them into your trolley, it is that horrible time of every shopping trip. Time to pay for the goods! To do this is pretty much the same as every other online shopping site, you just click the goto checkout option and you will be taken through to the secure payment area of asda.co.uk.

When processing your details for payment you are given an option of whether you wish to accept substitutes. This basically means if when your order is picked at your local store and they are out of stock of something will you accept an alternative. I have this option as yes and normally find that the substitutes are quite suitable and they also reduce the price to the originally selected items price if there is a difference.

Whilst entering your card details you are given the opportunity to name that card. This is in order to allow you to save the card details for future use. Another time saving idea that is great as it saves you having to find your credit or debit card each time and going through the processes of entering the details each time. This then completes the transaction and you will be emailed your complete order straight after this point along with your delivery date and times etc. You also have the chance to print a printer friendly version of the order just for reference.

I have never had a problem with the online shopping service in the whole time I have been using it. The delivery has been on time every time, except once when it was close to Christmas and it was 10 minutes late, but other than that each time was on time and once was even half an hour early. The drivers I have found are always very helpful and friendly and will help you in anyway they can. The shopping is also packed by department in order that the frozen / chilled etc is all separate from everything else.

Once you have a previous order with them you can go back and view them every time you log onto their website. By doing so under the my favourites options on the online store page you can add items direct from previous receipts onto your trolley as part of your shopping in order to save you time. A great idea if you tend to buy the same products each time.

Delivery charges used to be free if you spent over £100 however this no longer applies and now a charge of £4.25 for all deliveries and they do deliver 7 days a week. Compared to other online shopping sites, this is quite competitive with Tesco.com charging £3.99, £4.99 or even £5.99. Sainsburystoyou.co.uk charge £5.00. The biggest down side is that the order is picked from your local store so you have no way of knowing if your product is in stock at the time of placing your order, and won’t know until the delivery arrives.

After you have registered with ASDA online they do keep you updated with regular emails about the delivery service, the online shopping service and promotional material about ASDA such as special offers coming up etc.

Overall I would have to say that despite some of the downsides I would have to recommend online shopping from ASDA, especially for those of you who are either lazy of just short of time.

To visit the site go to www.asda.co.uk or www.asda.com
Call them on 0845 300 7771
Or email them at: home.shopping@asda.co.uk

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