George clothing to be sold online

Asda is going digital and will start selling its George clothing range over the internet for the first time next year in one of the biggest online pushes in Wal-Mart's recent history. An initial range of 1,000 menswear, womenswear and childrenswear lines will be sold online to UK shoppers from February 2008. The range will be expanded significantly following the launch.

Asda has signed a deal with Zendor, a subsidiary of N Brown, the home shopping company, to manage the website and provide warehousing for the products. Internet shopping is fast coming of age in the UK. Typical online spend per customer is set to grow to £1,056 by 2011 from £606 in 2006, according to Verdict Research. The launch of George online follows Marks & Spencer's recent relaunch of its website. Asda also hopes to steal a march on rival Tesco, the UK's largest retailer, which briefly tested selling clothes online last Christmas but is yet to commit to launching a full online clothing offer.