Asda's parent company Walmart International has released figures for the first quarter of 2012 highlighting the ongoing growth of online shopping.

The group revealed that Asda's internet sales increased by 19.2 per cent during the three-month period from January to March 2012, indicating that consumers are making greater use of online retail platforms and possibly related services such as parcel delivery.

Like-for-like sales across the whole of the British brand's business climbed by 2.2 per cent in the first quarter.

Commenting on the figures, Doug McMillon, president and chief executive of Walmart International, revealed that the growth in internet sales occurred alongside a rise in the number of people heading online to check product prices under Asda's 'every day low prices' (EDLP) guarantee.

"Our online business in the UK maintained its strong performance, with sales growth of 19.2 per cent in the quarter," he said.

"With customers trusting EDLP, we carried the momentum gained over Christmas into the first quarter. The Asda price guarantee attracted more than 500,000 online checks per week in the first quarter."

The consistent growth of online shopping - which bodes well for providers of related products such as parcel delivery and courier services - has been highlighted by a number of organisations recently, including the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

Figures from the BRC and KPMG covering April 2012 show that online, mail order and phone purchases of non-food items increased by nine per cent year-on-year during the month.

The wider UK retail industry, meanwhile, experienced a 3.3 per cent fall in sales compared to April last year.

Furthermore, consumers appear to be growing in confidence with regards to buying items over the internet.

A survey released by software company Oracle and research provider MarketTools suggested that a fifth (20 per cent) of consumers complete transactions online every week and more than a third (35 per cent) do so once a month.

Author:  Paul Burn