It wants to integrate the baskets on its grocery and non-food sites and, in the longer term, its site could resemble an online computer game.
Tesco.com supply chain director Neil Ashworth revealed the vision supply chain software vendor Red Prairie’s October conference. He said that one challenge Tesco.com faces is that customers cannot pick products from its grocery and non-food site, Tesco Direct, and buy them in the same transaction.
“Customers want to access the online stores with one checkout. That will be a big challenge in the next few years,” he said.
In the longer term, bigger changes may be afoot. Ashworth said that customer expectations do not stand still, pointing out that more than 80 per cent of Tesco.com’s customers have broadband, many have mobiles that are web-enabled and computers are entering the living room as people begin to watch TV over the internet.
He said that Tesco must think outside of the internet browser when it develops its online offer. “Not needing a browser will change the way people use the online environment,” he said.
He added that the Tesco.com of the future could resemble the online virtual world Second Life. “Second Life is becoming a bigger deal; it is a significant opportunity. We are looking at reworking the whole online environment to make it more three-dimensional and game-like,” he said.
Ashworth said that online retail sales could go from being worth between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of the market now, to 25 per cent in the next five years. While this projection may seem far-fetched, he concluded that early forecasts for online sales growth have held up – although the dotcom boom and bust distorted the picture.
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