Tesco will sell a range of more than 8,000 products, including beds, sofas, kitchenware, electrical goods, as well as sporting goods from Tesco Direct, which will be available online and via a catalogue.
Items will be available for purchase via a new web site or by phone, as well as at some selected Tesco stores. About 20 million catalogues will be printed.
Tesco finance and strategy director Andrew Higginson said: 'About a quarter of UK shoppers are able to get to a Tesco Extra store easily, so Tesco Direct will make our non-food products more accessible than ever before.'
The supermarket giant also promised to offer a better service than that provided by high street retailers in the market. Higginson said the company's research showed customers were sick of having to wait in all day for deliveries that do not turn up when promised.
He said 63 per cent of shoppers have had to wait in for a day or more for a delivery in the past 12 months, while 43 per cent named long waiting times as the biggest drawback of home shopping.
He added that the aim of Tesco Direct was 'to create a service that works to our customers time frame, not ours'. The new venture promises next-day delivery within a two-hour time slot up to 11pm for smaller items such as kitchenware.'
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