Tesco has laid down a marker in online grocery innovation with a new interactive virtual shopping wall in Gatwick Airport.

The grocer has kicked off a two-week trial of 10 interactive shopping screens designed to target holidaymakers yesterday.

Shoppers in the London airport’s North Terminal departure lounge can scan posters of Tesco’s 80 most popular items to fill a shopping basket using an app.

The app also allows customers to browse 20,000 extra products and to have the items delivered or collected up to three weeks after ordering.

Tesco said that the average traveller at Gatwick spends 70 minutes in the departure lounge and is offering staple goods that shoppers will be keen to have in the fridge when they return home from holiday.

The initiative follows the introduction of a Tesco shopping wall on the South Korean underground last year which has since been rolled out to bus stops. Rival Ocado ran a shopping wall at Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre last month after trying out the idea at One new Change last year.

Tesco director of internet retailing Ken Towle said: “We are playing to a big part of why customers shop online. When customers are returning from holiday they are thinking about replenishing the fridge and food in the cupboard.

“There is a lot of support and resources for our online innovations. The virtual store blends clicks and bricks, bringing together our love of browsing with the convenience of online shopping. It’s a chance to showcase what we can do to the 30,000 people a day who will depart from Gatwick’s North Terminal, many of whom will need to fill their fridges when they get home.”

Tesco estimates that 90% of the UK population will have a smartphone by 2016 and that it will double its online grocery sales to £5.5bn in the next five years.