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Walmart-owned supermarket chain Asda has commented on a 'virtual' sales assistant trialled at its Milton Keynes store in January. The female hologram, developed by queue management specialist Tensator, greeted shoppers and gave details on the supermarket's ten percent price guarantee which a spokeswoman for the company told The Grocer was 'very successful and popular with customers'.

While Asda has no immediate plans to roll out the technology nation-wide, Tensator predicts that its Virtual Assistant could soon be a familiar sight in shops and airports, where the technology was first tested at check-in queues.

Highlighting retail applications for the holograms, Ajay Joshi, media product development manager at Tensator, says: "Imagine having a virtual assistant in the wine aisle. You could have a virtual sommelier in the aisle 24/7. Customers could scan a bottle and be told all about the wine, or food it would be ideal with."

US pharmacy chain Duane Reade, which rolled out the holograms last summer, says the technology offered its stores a 'wow factor'. "The virtual assistant is so compelling, shoppers are receptive to the wealth of information she provides," says a spokesperson.