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Tesco PLC

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Tesco PLC is an international grocery and general merchandise retailer based in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. Tesco is the world's third biggest retailer after Wal-Mart and Carrefour (1), and the largest in the U.K. with a market share of over 30%, about twice the market share of its two closest competitors combined. Tesco was founded in 1919 as a brick and mortar business (2) and it would remain as such until 1996 when the company launched its online delivery service. However, it was not until 2000 that Tesco.com was formally established as the platform for online ordering. This case discusses and analyses how Tesco started online-grocery-retailing as a new distribution channel for its business, as well as the challenges, milestones, and …show more content…

(3). Tesco also offered convenience to their customers by making the transition from the brick and mortar experience to the online experience as smooth as possible. When customers registered into the online system, they were encouraged to key in their Tesco Clubcard number which allowed the system to identify the customer’s most frequently bought items (in physical stores) and then suggest those items for their online shopping cart. By doing this Tesco was not only offering its customers convenience, but it was also providing them with an incentive to get the Tesco Clubcard which in turn would increase customer loyalty. An additional benefit of having customers use the Tesco Clubcard was that it allowed the company to track how many online shoppers were also frequent Tesco (physical) store shoppers, and this would in turn help the company gather useful data to analyze performance metrics to compare and contrast the two distribution channels. Once Tesco.com was up and running, the company still had challenges to overcome and decisions to be made in order to become successful in the unproven business of online grocery retailing. First, as the company saw how much more powerful the internet was compared to phone and catalog ordering, Tesco decided to drop these two inefficient ordering methods and make

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