Sainsbury’s online sales jump 25%

Sainsbury's grew its online sales by a quarter in the three months to 2 October, as the firm continued investing heavily in its supply chain and other systems.

The supermarket said that it had also outgunned arch rivals including Tesco in terms of total sales, with a 2.9 percent increase including in-store revenues.

The online growth was attributable to "continued record levels of service and availability", Sainsbury's said in a statement.

In May, the supermarket had stated specifically that "continued improvements in IT, supply chain and store-picking processes" had helped online growth.

Sainsbury's expanded its online business last year when it started selling 8,000 non-food products via the internet in July. It is also trialling a 'click and collect' service in 10 stores from May 2010, allowing people to order online and collect in-store.

Earlier this year, Sainsbury's implemented the Spectrum Infrastructure Management solution from CA to support its online shopping supply operations. The software is intended to promptly notify the supermarket of any online ordering problems.

The supermarket also has a five-year deal with IBM to manage its supply chain systems.