TESCO case

In the beginning of the 20th century grocery stores were very small and had low inventories. Therefore, to purchase goods customers had to wait to be attended. This concept changed when TESCO arrived into the market and turned it into a self-service process in which customers could pick goods from the shelves. By using this strategy of serving customer needs success came for TESCO in the following years.

Attending the customer’s needs is a hard task. To get the customers data considering their high transit in the store became one of TESCO’s goals in order to get customers to be loyal to the store. Their first attempt was using the Green Shield Stamps that were given to customers if they spend more than $10. As when customers returned to the store they could use it to purchase more goods. Using this stamps TESCO managed to give discounts to the customers, by lowering prices without incurring in illegal activities.

Several years later TESCO came up with a loyalty card that could be used by the customers to get a discount. In order to put this idea into practice they had to change the entire infrastructure in the stores, so that loyalty cards could be passed and obtain the data from each customer. After installing this system they managed to control data related to their customers and therefore find out their needs and interests. This new technology made them achieve their goal of serving the customer needs, and was a mayor impulse to become the number one retail store in the United Kingdom.

The previous success innovating with technologies related to gather information from the customers. Lead them invest in the Internet to attract customers with physical and time limitations. Venturing in the e-market brought them many positives outcomes, as they reduced the costs of the operation and were able to reach to a larger market. But still customer’s lack of trust, makes them prefer choosing their own goods.

I consider that TESCO has been able to succeed in getting a big market share by implementing innovative techniques to gather information about their customers. This technology has helped by simplifying the methods and making it easier for the interpretation of information. By using technology and the implementation of innovatory campaigns TESCO has managed to be successful in the UK. For these reasons I consider that the correct implementation of technology in the retail business will help these companies understand better where they are standing, therefore take decisions regarding their future strategy of the company.