And as the grocery juggernaut strives to fully win back the hearts of shoppers, its Tesco Labs innovation arm has been busy devising ways to streamline the consumer journey.

The latest from the supermarket’s innovation division is a tie-up with ‘task-managing platform’ IFTTT.

Short for ‘if this, then that’, IFTTT allows multiple apps on a smartphone to work together. An event on one app, such as a weather alert or a Facebook upload, automatically triggers an IFTTT response.

For Tesco, having its own channel on the platform allows customers to partially automate their online shopping. Customers can for instance set up triggers to monitor price changes and automatically add groceries to their online shopping baskets.

A retail game-changer?

With this technology, Tesco has offered its customers a form of predictive online shopping. It is an innovation that meets the shift towards owning multiple connected devices – a trend which, as the hope is with Tesco’s turnaround, shows no signs of slowing.

But is it transformational? 

Tesco’s head of labs Angela Maurer does not go that far. She says: “We’re always looking at emerging consumer trends and technologies. We met IFTTT last summer and instantly saw an opportunity to create an automated shopping service for our customers.

“Essentially, it’s an open innovation platform. Tesco has not created any hardware. It’s purely a software integration that allows any internet connected device to connect to our service.” 

Maurer describes the initiative, “as with all Tesco Labs projects”, as an experiment. “The proof will be in the number of customers who use it and what they use it for,” she says.

Still, it may provide a valuable lens into how Tesco customers are thinking and, more importantly, how they are shopping.

“We’re hoping to learn more about how our customers want to use it and how it can help them to shop more conveniently before we decide to do any more with it,” Maurer adds.

One retail technology expert thinks that while the initiative is “highly unlikely to be a retail game-changer”, it will be good for Tesco from a research and development perspective.

“It will only appeal to a small number of customers, but by rolling this out Tesco will learn a huge amount about their tech-savvy customers and be able to apply it to other customers,” he told Retail Week.

According to digital consultancy Elixirr, the technology alone isn’t an industry game-changer, but Tesco’s approach is “spot on” because it accommodates consumer flexibility.

Elixirr partner Brian Kalms says: “Today’s consumers want to be able to connect with brands how and when they want, rather than how and when the retailer thinks they want.

“Putting the customer at the heart of everything is the only way retailers will be able to survive in the long-term.”

Amazon still dashing ahead

Arguably, Amazon is already a step ahead with its Dash button technology.

The etail giant has been seeking ways to provide automated ecommerce since 2015 when it introduced the Dash buttons for Prime customers. The buttons allow shoppers to automatically order and reorder everyday products – from tea to condoms – reducing the risk of being caught short.

As investment service Haatch co-founder Fred Soneya points out, Tesco’s approach of using IFTTT still relies on the consumer to personalise and respond to triggers.

“It puts the onus on the consumer to create recipes, where you could argue Amazon Dash is ‘plug and play’,” Soneya says.

To take another example of predictive online ordering, the Domino’s Pizza Zero Click delivery app automatically places a customer’s default order, unless the user instructs it otherwise within 30 seconds. Like Amazon, Domino’s has put its faith in the repetitive nature of online shopping.

“However, consumers taking this mindset into grocery shopping is definitely new thinking and provides some really savvy ways to shop online for its tech-savvy customers,” Soneya believes.

Automation, despite being relatively common for some time now, “will become increasingly common place over time”, he predicts.

“Eventually, consumers won’t have to do anything; our fridges will all be integrated with IFTTT.”

Predictions for the future

Other retailers, including US electronics giant Best Buy and home improvement retailer Home Depot, already have their own channels on the IFTTT platform. Best Buy’s tech-wise customers can receive alerts when popular products are in stock and Home Depot can notify its connected customers when the price of a product changes.

But as the only UK grocer currently on board, IFTTT is making Tesco’s ecommerce business stand out from its competitors… for now at least.

Given this week’s news that Sainsbury’s is hiring 150 new digital and technology employees to improve its online offer, Tesco’s main competitor may well be hot on its heels with fresh technology ideas.

And while this innovation may not appeal to everyone, it demonstrates Tesco’s culture of learning.

By finding out as much as it can about its customers, Tesco can begin to re-bolster its reputation and position as the UK’s premier retailer.