Chief executive, Tesco.com

Tesco is the first grocer to claim to make money online, and under Wade-Gery, the dotcom division has certainly flourished.

She is a big believer in doing things online that make life easier for customers. Take Tesco’s iPhone grocery shopping app. It wasn’t the first to market with this − Ocado had already demonstrated that regular online grocery customers will shop on an iPhone − but it has run with the idea and is advertising the app on primetime TV.

Other recent developments that have pushed retail boundaries include the pilot of collecting online groceries from outside a store, rather than having them delivered. Again Wade-Gery said it was being tested to see whether it would benefit busy shoppers. At the same time, the growing multichannel offer, with customers being able to collect Tesco Direct orders from certain stores, is something competitors must monitor closely.

In the past, she has been at the heart of the retailer’s efforts to make online shopping easy, including reducing the time it takes customers to populate their shopping baskets online and improving home delivery.

Tesco maintains that its online business is profitable, generating £58m in profit from sales of £1.2bn in its first half 2010/11 results. Sales were up 16.1% for the period, and the profit for online groceries has risen by 9.1% (though this was offset by costs of setting up its online clothing and entertainment sites). Tesco Direct makes a ‘modest’ loss off annualised sales approaching £500m, which probably does little to console its competitors.

Wade-Gery has a relatively low profile in the industry, but what she says counts. Earlier this year, Retail Week highlighted her as a chief executive of the future. One could debate she already has the top etail job in the UK, but should she move on to run a major high street retailer, her ecommerce expertise would be the clincher.

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