INTERVIEW TESCO
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concentrated on, or is it totally across the board? We’ve pretty much taken the SoftWide offer as it stands. We’ve incorporated the products that they have managed to licence and launched them on the site. The next phase is to start looking more closely at the range, and also look at how we can broaden that range in terms of the delivery mechanism to a broader set of categories. So we could, for example, offer deeper catalogue on some movie content – i.e. things that we wouldn’t stock physically because demand wasn’t large enough to warrant it. But we could stock a range through SoftWide, provided we could get the content owners to a level of satisfaction with the physical SKU, whereby they would say ‘yes, we’d be more than happy for our brand to be represented
WHAT IS SOFTWIDE? THE SOFTWIDE system allows consumers to print software themselves via a kiosk style booth in-store, dramatically enhancing the number of lines available while simultaneously removing the need for physical stock. The system can also be used internally by a retailer to fulfil online orders. Retailers can claim to offer thousands of titles, while remaining unexposed to the risk that amount of physical stock would represent. Owner Tribeka has recently signed deals with Microsoft and Norton, and will be looking to snap up more big name publishers going forward.
in that way, and we’re happy for you to send that to customers in that format’. So we are going to talk to film studios, for example, about whether or not we can bring an extended offer for something we wouldn’t normally buy from them, provided we can create a satisfactory SKU that they would be happy with. How does this tie in with your overall technology category strategy? It seems to signify that you’re getting more serious in the area… It’s quite clear from our development in our electricals business and what we’ve done there, that we have been serious about this for quite some time. It’s increasingly big business for us. The criticisms of such a broad retailer like Tesco selling PCs and software is that it requires much more bespoke staff knowledge than other categories – almost a personal shopper experience. How would you respond to that? We’ve absolutely recognised that now, and increasingly in the future customers are going to want more help and more personal service in areas of technology. And that is getting quite tricky as things develop very fast with new technology coming on to the market, and customers require a good deal of help and support to make the most of those technologies. And that’s why Tesco has increased its tech team. So in our big stores where we have significant electricals and technology areas, there is a specialist in every one who can help customers in exactly that way. We’ve invested heavily in training and hiring staff who are able to give that type of support directly to customers, both in the stores and we also have technical support available to customers online and over the phone. Tesco does have a lot of brand trust with the mass market – do you think that helps with technology sales, in situations where customers may be intimidated by the ‘techy’ atmosphere of specialists and independents? I think so, and it’s our job to make sure the things we do and the things we support are worthy of that trust. So we’re very careful to make sure that the
22 PCR July
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