Asda to roll out its in-store Wine Selector across the country

Published: 27 September, 2010

Asda is to roll out its Wine Selector nationally after a successful trial boosted sales by 4.5%.

Asda is to roll out its Wine Selector nationally after a successful trial boosted sales by 4.5%

The in-store electronic, touch-screen machine aims to demystify the category and simplify the task of choosing wine via key decision making criteria such as price, grape and country.

Adrian McKeon, category director for Beers, Wines and Spirits at Asda, said it had seen an uplift in sales of more premium wines, including the Extra Special tier.

He cited Altos de Tamaron, which retails at £7.98, enjoying an uplift up to 15 times its regular rate of sale when it was Wine of the Week. He added all test stores experienced sales increases in the region of 4.5% across all SKUs with a growth in the above £5 sector.

"One consistent comment when asking for feedback from customers was that they found the wine category very confusing to navigate and difficult for them to make an informed decision," said McKeon.

"Shoppers want to interact with the category, but there have previously been a number of barriers to this; the Wine Selector has made it more simple for customers to therefore make an informed decision based on key criteria such as price and what meal they are serving the wine alongside."

"As a high involvement, low knowledge category, the wine category was in need of innovation to really make an impact on the customer purchase decision, and we believe we have started to achieve this."

After 18 months research, customer feedback showed that 68% of customers find the task of choosing wine confusing, and 56% tend to buy the same wines week in week out.

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