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Tesco.com is to launch an m-commerce initiative in 2002 that will allow customers to download a shopping application onto handheld devices.
The application, which is currently being developed by Tesco.com's IT team, will be available for download from the company's UK Web site early in 2002. However according to a report from New Media Age, the application will be restricted to registered users.
The pocket shopper enables customers to make orders from Tesco.com using handheld devices such as Pocket PCs. The orders will then be automatically uploaded once the device is connected to a PC's cradle. However, it is understood that the pocket shopper will not work with a 2G mobile device meaning its potential users would have to upgrade to GPRS (2.5G).
If successful it is thought that the service will be rolled out across all of Tesco's stores in the UK, but company spokespeople were unable to say if there were any plans to introduce the service in Ireland following the roll-out of GPRS here in early 2002 by Eircell Vodafone and Digifone.
In an interview with New Media Age, Nick Lansley, Tesco.com's IT and new technology manager, said the pocket shopper will be the big piece in Tesco's m-commerce strategy in 2002. "We want to reach out to new demographics that we haven't already reached, who are time poor, but have five minutes of dead time here and there in their day," he said.
Tesco's Irish e-shopping operation, Tesco.ie, currently has over 27,000 registered customers with an on-line delivery capability to serve some 720,000 households directly. Tesco.ie recently expanded geographically and now offers deliveries in Dublin, Cork, Meath, Kerry and Kildare. Tesco offers about 15,000 individual product lines through its Internet shopping service.
M-commerce has been widely hyped as the wireless Internet's next big thing, but concerns over security coupled with usability issues has meant that it has yet to take off. However, a recent report from the Yankee Group predicted that the mobile commerce market in Europe would be worth USD50 billion per annum within five years. It said though that the main revenue generator would be premium content and not the sales of goods over mobile phones.
But, Tesco.com is convinced that m-commerce will be an increasingly important revenue source as more sophisticated mobile devices and services are made available. And the company already has a good track in the e-commerce field. Tesco's September financial results showed a 77 percent increase in on-line sales for the grocery giant. In the first half of 2001, the on-line business reported sales of STG146 million with a loss of around STG3 million for the period.
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