Not to be left out of the game ASDA have launched a new site, www.homeinstore.co.uk, to offer its customers a new property service on-line. The service allows customers to market their property on-line or in-store for a charge of £35 a week. Partnerships with local estate agents will bring the service to its 15 million UK customers.
Not only does the site offer opportunities for the buying and rental market but it promises a commercial and new builds section coming soon.
It remains to be seen if Asda can pull this one off considering the proliferation of cheaper and even free portal sites that have sprung up in recent years. An obvious advantage to the business model would be their ability to offer in-store advertising on a local level, a move that many on-line services would have a job matching.
Personally I would not like someone buying my property at a good price…Asda price, but that is just my opinion. What is also clearly just my opinion is the fact that fuelling the growth of Asda, a subsidiary of the famous American Behemoth Wal-Mart, is helping fund a company with an atrocious record of employee rights violations. They are renowned for their use of outside consultancies to crush union activity, for example.
Time will tell whether this new business model will prove successful in the current financial climate. I myself wish them great luck in this new endeavour.
For further reading may I suggest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Wal-Mart |
