5 years ago: Net gets larger for Tesco's online users

25.10.1999Tesco has extended its home shopping service, Tesco direct, to cover all of the greater London area and the south-east of England.

The service, which launched in 1996 in selected London outlets, is now operating out of 72 stores. Tesco aims to have 100 stores running the scheme by the end of the year.

Tesco direct has created over 1,000 jobs since its inception, and allows shoppers to chose from 15,000 product lines from the company's website, 24-hours a day.

25.10.2004 While Tesco may not always be first off the block when it comes to dipping its toes in the technological waters, it certainly does know a lucrative market when it sees it: the last five years have certainly been good to Tesco and technology.

Online grocery buying has gone from being internet oddity to shopping staple, with Tesco one of the earliest retailers to use the web to sell its products. This year's annual results saw online arm Tesco.com sales grow by 27 per cent to £307m and profits increased by 95 per cent to £15m.

Aside from teaming bricks with clicks, Tesco has also decided to try its hand as a telecoms and broadband seller, both by piggy-backing on others' networks.

Although mobiles and broadband are hardly a huge risk for the nation's biggest supermarket chain, Tesco has put its head above the parapet with one of the most-hyped technologies, RFID, and plans to put the into all its Extra superstores - trialling the chips ahead of all its main rivals.