Re: UKNM: Tesco's token effort

[Ray Taylor]

Neil Morgan <

neil [dot] morgane-Space [dot] co [dot] uk

> asks:


> Ray,

>

> You wrote about Tesco's token effort at online sales ...

<snip>

> Are you saying that 'young singles/professionals who cannot be bothered to

> go shopping' are not a legitimate target market?  I thought they were a

> large part of the existing web market.


No. They are a prime target market. But they are only a minority of baked

beans buyers. The point being that Tesco is apparently targeting a minority

demographic (the early adopters) only, rather than going all out to target

the whole UK market - housewives _and_ early adopters and everyone else.

Hence my comment.


> When the other 11 million UK adults

> come on-line perhaps Terry will target the housewives.


Ah! so Tesco, otherwise known as an innovator (witness the phenomenally

successful Tesco Clubcard) is happy to adopt a "wait and see" attitude to

online? Is that what you are saying?


I suspect the company is more forward thinking than you give them credit

for, otherwise they would not have launched one of the first branded ISP

services - TescoNet (which I helped out with in the dim and now distant

past) - ahead of Freeserve.


Also, the announcement that they are hiving off Tesco Direct as a

wholly-owned subsidiary suggests that Tesco Direct might (I'll keep an open

mind) at some point become a serious (the first) direct/online player.


But the proof of the pudding is whether the housewife buys it. And let's

have an end to this absurd prejudice that ordinary people over the age of 25

do not use the internet. The internet user demographic is fast becoming the

typical UK household demographic.


The only feedback I have had from housewives about Tesco Direct and

Sainsbury's equivalent is negative. Early-adopter friends think it's great

because, as I said, it saves them the hassle, they never look at the sell-by

date (see earlier discussions), and they don't care if it costs them more.

And if it doesn't arrive the same day they just book a take-away instead.


Should we make anything of Tesco Direct's Helen Bridgett moving on to

pastures new (or should that be lawns new?)?


Perhaps a spokesperson from Tesco could help us on this point?


Tesco? I think they're great (not Tesco Direct). But Dinosaurs is Dinosaurs

and I'd rather be a small furry mammal when the comet hits.


Ray Taylor



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