Asda is set to expand its one-hour delivery service to an additional 96 stores across the UK.

The news comes after it launched a successful trial in July at its Halifax, Rotherham, Poole, and St Matthews stores, which the Big Four supermarket said, “exceeded expectations”.

The cost of the service is £8.50 regardless of the size of the order.

The news comes as more supermarkets are looking to offer short delivery times to their customers; Morrisons now offers customers rapid grocery deliveries via its ‘Deliveroo Hop’ service, delivered in partnership with the delivery firm.

Morrisons said that the new service will allow customers in Vauxhall and Battersea in Southwest London to receive groceries in under 15 minutes.

Asda said if the latest rollout is popular with customers, it will extend the service to even more stores.

The quick commerce channel – which delivers food and groceries to consumers in less than one hour and often sub-30 minutes – is predicted to grow to £3.3 billion in the UK alone according to analyst house IGD.

The research found the quick commerce channel is currently worth £1.4 billion.

The space is also seeing significant investment; Istanbul-based grocery delivery app Getir raised $550 million in a Series D funding round in June, giving it a total valuation of $7.5 billion.

The start-up, founded in 2015, offers consumers “ultra-fast” deliveries in under 15 minutes.

“We are rolling out our express delivery service to almost 100 stores after a trial showed there was a clear gap in the market for a speedy delivery service offering our full online product range for delivery within one hour,” said Simon Gregg vice president of grocery at Asda. “As the only grocer to offer this service, we have seen a significant number of customers access this option, with slots regularly selling out at our pilot stores.”

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