Tesco announces expansion of Click and Collect service
Tesco CEO Philip Clarke has announced that the supermarket will be expanding its Click and Collect service to include clothing and grocery shopping.
Clarke said in a speech at the British Retail Consortium’s symposium yesterday that Tesco planned to double the number of stores with non-food Click and Collect to 600 and that clothing would be added to the service in July.
He also said that he was continuing to build on the “terrific legacy” left by former CEO Terry Leahy from whom he took over in March and had incorporated three new elements into the company strategy. These were becoming a multi-channel retailer, creating highly valued brands, and building the Tesco team.
He outlined a new era for retailing built around the merging of online and offline channels saying: “We are in a new era of retailing, creating great opportunities and challenges for every retailer, and putting even more focus on consumer trust.”
He continued: “The digital revolution that has turbo-charged globalisation is transforming how consumers and companies behave. This revolution is boosting competition, lowering prices, creating new virtual companies, allowing people to sell goods to each other without a middle man.”
Clarke said he believed that this new era with its emphasis on multi channel did not spell the end of shopping in stores. He added: “Virtual reality will never beat the physical experience of picking something up in a shop, feeling it, comparing it with other products on the shelf.
“But in this multichannel world, where there is so much information, choice and competition, successful retailers online and on the high street will be those who understand the power of brands in building customers’ trust.”
