Tesco

Tesco, the most successful of Britain’s big supermarket chains, has just announced that it is creating 7.000 jobs as part of its plans to expand its Internet home-shopping service. With nearly 300.000 registered customers and sales of more than £2.5m ($4.1m) a week, Tesco already claims to be the biggest web grocer in the world. Even more amazingly, it is profitable.

At present, Tesco accepts online sales at 100 of its stores, but soon that figure will rise to 300, giving it the ability to serve more than 1m home-shopping customers a week.

Tesco is exploiting its network of nearly 650 stores nationwide. This means online customers can buy as wide a range of goods as they could in a store. Customers can also arrange more convenient delivery times, because smaller vans are covering shorter distances. And Tesco has been able to develop its online business faster than have competitors that are creating parallel distribution systems from scratch.

When an order is received from the Tesco Direct website, it is sent to the server computer at the store nearest the customer’s home. The order is first assigned to the van that is to deliver the goods and then sent on to a “picking trolley”, a shopping cart with a screen and “shelf identifier” software that takes the piker to where each item is found.Once the trolley is loaded, it goes straight to the van for delivery.

The £5 that Tesco charges for home delivery is far less than the cost of employing all the pickers and drivers. And when stores are crowded at week ends, which are when most order arrive, efficiency falls off further as pickers jostle their way down aisles and queue like any other shopper.

Tesco argues that it still makes a respectable margin on its Internet sales, because the average web shoppingbasket is worth about £100, much more than people normally spend when they shop. And by adding other products, such as books and clothes, that online customers seem more willing to mix with food than do customers in the supermarket, the firm hopes to raise margins further.

Tesco may make a few mistakes, but the timing and execution of this transition are crucial. As retailers are finding out, the web is an unforgiving place

Tesco, le plus réussi(fructueux) de grandes chaînes de supermarchés britanniques, vient d'annoncer qu'il crée 7.000 emplois(travaux) dans le cadre de ses plans d'étendre son service d'achats à domicile Internet. Avec presque 300.000 clients enregistrés et ventes de plus que £ 2.5m ($4.1m) une semaine, Tesco revendiquent(prétendent) déjà être le plus grand épicier Web dans le monde. Même plus étonnamment, c'est rentable(profitable).

À présent, Tesco accepte des ventes en ligne à 100 de ses magasins(dépôts), mais bientôt que la figure(le chiffre) montera à 300, le donnant la capacité de servir plus que 1m des clients d'achats à domicile une semaine.

Tesco exploite son réseau de presque 650 magasins(dépôts) dans tout le pays. Cela signifie que des clients en ligne peuvent acheter une aussi large gamme de marchandises qu'ils pourraient dans un magasin(dépôt). Les clients peuvent aussi arranger des délais de livraison plus commodes, parce que des camions plus petits couvrent des distances plus courtes. Et Tesco a pu

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