ONLIN SHOPPING
Tesco Lotus launches online grocery
Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- Tesco Lotus, the UK-based retail giant, yesterday officially launched its grocery home shopping service for online shoppers in Bangkok, aiming to cash in on the tremendous growth in Internet and smart-phone use in the capital.

The UK-based retail giant has already invested about Bt300 million in the development of its online shopping business in Thailand, including IT system, stock management and related equipment, such as 30 delivery vans. The online service will be first launched in Bangkok to ensure that the service will be absolutely right and fit in with customers' needs before going into other big cities throughout the Kingdom.

Tesco Lotus said overall Internet penetration in Thailand is currently about 30 per cent, up from 27.3 per cent last year. However, in urban cities like Bangkok, the Internet penetration is as high as 50 per cent and about 25 per cent in Chiang Mai and other northern provinces. The mobile phone penetration in Thailand is more than 100 per cent. However, about 90 per cent of urban people had used smart phones.

"For Tesco, the success of online shopping is not just about technology, it's about the end-to-end shopping experience - from the website to the door step," said Tesco Lotus CEO John Christie.

He said that online shopping in Thailand, however, was quite small, accounting for less than 1 per cent of total retail sales in Thailand. In Korea, the online shopping accounted for 10 per cent of total retail sales, and up to 12 per cent of total retail market in UK.

Tesco has operated its online grocery home shopping service at its home market in UK for 12 years and online shopping business now accounts for about 4 per cent of its total sales in UK.

He said that Thailand is the 7th country in the world, besides UK, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Ireland, South Korea, and Malaysia for the launch of its grocery home shopping service.

He said that Tesco had applied the same IT platform used at its online shopping service in many markets around the world to Thailand. It, however, brought something new to online shopping in Thailand.

He said that five Tesco Lotus stores in Bangkok - Rama II, Rama IV, Min Buri, Bangkapi, and Chaeng Wattana - had been promoted as the hubs for the home delivery of its online shopping service.

Christie said that Tesco Lotus softly launched the grocery home shopping service at its Min Buri branch to test the system and trained its 'personal shoppers', who will be professionally trained for selecting products purchased by its customers online.

He said that more than 20,000 product items had been bought in the online service, including fresh and non-food products. About 30 per cent of them are fresh products.

After registering at www.tescolotus.com and going to Shop Online in the menu, customers can choose from more than 20,000 lines of fresh and frozen food, groceries and non-food items. Once a shopping list is created, the customer can easily pick one of the six delivery time slots available from 10am to 10pm, seven days a week. Orders will then be sorted by "personal shoppers" before being delivered right at the customer's home the next day. The store will charge its online customers Bt60 per trip with no minimum order.

Tesco Lotus currently operates about 148 hypermarkets, together with 1,100 Express stores, in Thailand.


-- The Nation 2013-04-05

Directly copying a press release and using it as a 'news item' generally is 'advertising'.

Can we also have a milkman to deliver fresh milk every day. Thanks.

Any horse meat on the shopping list?

Any horse meat on the shopping list?

Neigh.

30 delivery vans in Bangkok traffic. You could be waiting a loooooooong time for your groceries!

Are we allowed to discuss advertising on this forum ?

:-)

I used this service three times last month and time of delivery was well within the 2 hour window specified. Very good website and at 60 baht less cost than a taxi.

However, about 90 per cent of urban people had used smart phones.

Right. The urban Thailand smart phone penetration is 90%.

The mobile phone penetration in Thailand is more than 100 per cent.

How can more than all the people own/use mobile phones? Even if everyone owns 2 mobile phones, it's still no more than 100% of the population who own/use them.

Tops have had online shopping for a couple of years.

Any horse meat on the shopping list?

Neigh.

None left in Thailand, only buffaloes and they are all sick, so please send more money

with no minimum order.

At first.

Look forward to the service being available in Samui.

It's not a pleasure to shop at the stores,

when no one wants or tries to help you anyway;

if you have a question,

and in Nathon the aisles are always cluttered with stock,

that they expect the customers to maneuver around.

So online shopping would be a dream to use...

^ No sense of adventure!

300bt ??? For a online shop ?

More like a BMW Fleet for all CE*

I used this service three times last month and time of delivery was well within the 2 hour window specified. Very good website and at 60 baht less cost than a tlo

But look at the exercise you have missed.

Smart move. You can bypass their rude employees.

The only thing I would be concerned about is they would unload their older merchandise on you.

^{Any Somchai can pick his nose as he selects your chicken scraps from the open tray and then leaves them in the back of a non air-conditioned van for half a day as he negotiates Bangkok's traffic.}

^{Top idea !}

To be honest i am having a hard time even finding the home page.I would like to check it out as I have a friend who is sometimes house-bound and also can't carry heavy packages.Sounds like a great service for 60 baht.Do they deliver the Mont Clair wine casks as well?

Actually, there's a thought. If they deliver booze outside the legal alcohol trading hours, say 10 am, are they breaking the law?

300bt ??? For a online shop ?

More like a BMW Fleet for all CE*

You obviously dont realize what it takes for a large corporation to implement something of this magnitude. So much research and development goes into it. A company like Tesco cant just hire a freelancer from online.

Nice, but as usual the ENG doesn't work properly. Luckily there are pictures Will be using that when they offer services in Bangplee.

To be honest i am having a hard time even finding the home page.I would like to check it out as I have a friend who is sometimes house-bound and also can't carry heavy packages.Sounds like a great service for 60 baht.Do they deliver the Mont Clair wine casks as well?

I didnt see any booze sold on the online page. Link is here: http://shoponline.tescolotus.com

Great service; can they deliver at Post office and send to Udon ????

Smart move. You can bypass their rude employees.

The only thing I would be concerned about is they would unload their older merchandise on you.

Its managed by Falang who want to be the leaders.

Can't see the mum and pop stores being happy about this!

Great Idea ..Absolutely ..

And its Dam easy to see why its working so well . If you are in Town ..How do you get back with all that Stuff ??

Tesco is great I reckon ..and I will certainly use this , makes really good sense .

Is this a late April Fool story?

The online shopping website is hidden so well that it takes real determination to even find it, then the english language only partially works, the images are tiny and dont zoom or expand, the whole website has a real amateur feel to it.

I make a living from building catalog websites, if I was the person who built this i'd give up and start looking for another job.

I have yet to see any Thai website that both works, has no errors, and is up to date.

I have yet to see any Thai website that both works, has no errors, and is up to date.

I've noticed the same thing. The government and school ones are the worst.

Smart move. You can bypass their rude employees.

The only thing I would be concerned about is they would unload their older merchandise on you.

Its managed by Falang who want to be the leaders.

Can't see the mum and pop stores being happy about this!

They want to expand their business if that means being a leader then I suppose it fits.

I still think it's a smart move.

To be honest i am having a hard time even finding the home page.I would like to check it out as I have a friend who is sometimes house-bound and also can't carry heavy packages.Sounds like a great service for 60 baht.Do they deliver the Mont Clair wine casks as well?

I didnt see any booze sold on the online page. Link is here: http://shoponline.tescolotus.com

Delivery of cold beer could make them a fortune.