Tesco.com: E-Business and E-Commerce Management

Tesco.com: E-Business and E-Commerce Management

Management Summary

Tesco Plc (Tesco) is one of the largest retailers with a presence in-store and online spheres. Its retail stores offer the widest possible range of products which includes both food and non-food items, clothing, health-care and beauty products, electronic items, home appliances, stationery, furnishings, etc. In the late 1980s, the non-food element of Tesco’s business was given more priority so as to add a new chapter to the already established brand Tesco Brand. In the non-food sector, for building business, Tesco utilised the significant brand loyalty which it had been able to develop among customers over a longer period of time. At the beginning of the 1990s, the company’s strategy towards the market had shifted from the food sector to non-food sectors along with its ambitious international expansion. Tesco had envisaged the use of Information & Communication Technology for improving its customer related operations and providing information, financial detail and delivery of services via the internet. Tesco expansion policy began with its entry into financial services and successfully leveraged its brand value. It offered a range of services such as savings account, travel and motor insurance and several other financial products (Coriolis Research, 2004).

This document has been developed for providing information related to Tesco. The details given here include Tesco’s customer centric approach based on business policy, its position in the current globalised world, its SWOT analysis and 5 Porter’s Industrial analysis and e-business strategy.

Introduction

The beginning

In 1918, amid the ruins of the First World War, the biggest thing that happened in the history of the United Kingdom’s retail industry was the beginning of the supermarket giant Tesco. It was the eastern end of London, which witnessed the modest beginning of this great organisation when Jack Cohen opened a grocery stall. The same went on to become the first Tesco store in the year 1929 and henceforth later termed as the birth of a UK retailing entity. The beginning mentioned above later became a revolution, and in the rest of the 20th century, the number of Tesco stores went on increasing every year. By the last quarter of the 20th century, Tesco became the most extensively spread retail chain while maintaining the simple philosophy of providing low-cost grocery items to customers across the nation. As per Jack Cohen in his autobiography, the above-mentioned philosophy is recognised as “Pile it High, Sell it cheap”. The continued growth and expansion of Tesco got substantiated through the emphasis that was being paid on products and services; physical environment as well as the location of stores, and the continuous analysis and review of concepts of retail management by experts around the globe while keeping a continuous eye over the psychology of shopping as well as shoppers (Coriolis Research, 2004).

Tesco.com: a revolution in online retail

Tesco has led the UK grocery retail sector with the simple philosophy that is continuous improvisation in customer service. There is a permanent procedure through customer feedback to inculcate processes for providing a better shopping experience to the customer. Following its drive to deliver new services in present and future, Tesco’s humble entry into e-commerce based online shopping of grocery products through Tesco.com has now transformed into an online revolution. Now, Tesco.com is the world’s largest online grocery store with several million registered customers. The warehouse that undertakes online orders is large enough to cater around 4000 plus orders in an hour across the whole of the UK. Utilising its store as warehouses for delivering orders made through Tesco.com, the company registered sales of over £1 billion through its web portal in the 2005-2006 fiscal year (NMA, 2005).

The most recent addition to Tesco.com business process is the launching of a dot-com store in Croydon, the UK, with a similar feature to that of any normal Tesco store but is only for catering online orders for registered users availing service in South London. These stores would remain out of reach for the common public. This arrangement is in sharp contrast to the previous arrangement in which local Tesco stores were supposed to cater to online purchase requests. This new arrangement shows highlight Tesco’s commitment towards its online customers for a quick and comfortable shopping experience. However, the store is supposed to cater for a vast area and hence requires extensive knowledge of the immediate road network. As Tesco stores have the reputation of responding quickly to customers’ needs; to mai