TescoNology!

Despite the heated debate Tesco has generated with regards to their 'unethical' expansion strategies, one cannot deny that they have been extremely efficient using technology to their advantage and how this fact has helped them to expand and penetrate a very large market and increase their competitive advantage.

Club Cards;

Their move from Green Shield stamps to club cards and NCR Teradata is a perfect example of this fact. Instead of just being another supermarket, Tesco entered into people's life. This technology allowed Tesco to get to know its customers more 'personally'. It is needless to say what opportunities such knowledge would provide Tesco, and Tesco has been befitting by this move to the full capacity.

 
Tesco Club card App:

The new Tesco club card App allows the user to follow the progress on a smart phone and it is a good example of Tesco's adaptation to new technology.


"The role-out of high speed broadband internet, a social networking frenzy and high tech mobile devices have all served to bloster online fashion retailing in recent years."


Tesco's reaction? The launch of Tesco online fashion store with its flagship F&F and Chleokee. 


Online Fashion at Tesco:

Ok, this may not seem so impressive to many but the infrastructure of an online fashion store is more complex than it looks to the naked eye. (Talking of own personal experience)

Perhaps it would be more impressive if it could create a 'visualization' where the buyer could choose the outfit and visually see how it would look like on in 'real'. The technology is already available (Cisco Telepresence)  and is used for global meetings.

What else do they use? 

• Club Card plus Telephone Account that allows members to make monthly direct debit payments to Tesco for groceries

• Tesco uses heat sensors to control the flow of customers in their store. 

• Using Adwords to generate traffic into their site.

• The use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to track goods leaving the store.  

RFID has created concerns about privacy issues but the potential of its use is beyond limits. (Unethical to some, but I actually had my dog chipped with RFID)

Extensive use of technology in the future will be a common practice and technology will continue to be one of the most important elements of a business. An examples of future use of technology for example is the 'smart dressing room' where you no longer need to change to see how your chosen clothes would look on you.

Or the sixth sense way of  smart shopping?

As futuristic as the above video may seem and the technologies in the movie 'The minority report' is nothing but real. So instead of running away from new technology, we might be better off by keeping our eyes and ears open and see how we can benefit by it.