Tesco: Subway Virtual Grocery Stores

Tesco is one of the leading international grocery retailers with operations in 14 countries including Europe, Asia and North America. It is Headquartered in the UK and it employs 492, 174 people. 

Tesco wanted to increase its market share and become the number one retailer in the Korean market through its korean retail brand called market plus. Korea is the second hard-working country in the world where people dread to grocery shop. Tesco saw this as an opportunity to completely redesign the grocery shopping experience. Through its Home Plus retail brand, it created a virtual grocery shopping experience in subways and other public places. The walls of subway stations were turned into virtual store displays that looked exactly like a real aisle of a grocery store. The only difference was that people purchased the products through their mobile phones. Each item on the virtual display had a QR code that could be scanned with a smartphone to be purchased and then delivered at the customers' doors few hours later. 

Tesco's innovative idea became very convenient for people who commute very often and do not have time to shop. They can quickly scan the items they need while they wait in the subway station. The new innovation increased sales dramatically by 130 % from November 2010 to January 2011. The new virtual store will not substitute traditional grocery stores, but this is another distribution channel that will help increase sales. It is not clear yet whether this innovation would be as successful in other countries such as the United States. It was mentioned in other blogs that due to the high rates of vandalism in the United States this distribution would not be effective. However, I think that in some cities and maybe in certain metro stations where vandalism rates are lower, Tesco's virtual stores could be a successful distribution channel. 

http://www.sumoheavy.com/category/innovation/

http://www.emarketer.com