Cookie policy
Follow this topicFollow this topic Knowledge » Shopping

Tesco launches online marketplace to rival Amazon

Ed Bowsher
by Lovemoney Staff Ed Bowsher on 17 April 2012  |  Comments 8 comments

Tesco has opened up the Tesco Direct website to third party retailers.

Tesco launches online marketplace to rival Amazon

Tesco is now allowing other retailers to sell goods on the Tesco Direct  website. This appears to be a move to compete with Amazon’s ‘marketplace’ offering.

The service made a quiet debut earlier this week and was spotted by the tamebay website. Today it was officially announced as part of Tesco's end-of-year financial results.

At this point, it’s still not clear how many other retailers will be selling on the Tesco site but Maplin and Crocus, the garden website, have already been spotted.

The move is an exciting development as it should increase competition in the online retail space.

Tesco’s big online advantage is its ‘Click and collect’ service. This allows you to order non-food goods from the Tesco website and then collect them from your local Tesco store.  Currently, more than 770 Tesco stores are part of the scheme and collection points will be introduced at a further 700 stores over the next year. There are also 45 stores that offer 'Click and Collect' for grocery items and that number will grow as well.

The company said in January that its UK business wasn’t performing as well as expected and that profits would be affected. One reason for the poor performance was that sales of non-food goods at Tesco’s big hypermarkets have been hit by online competition, so it makes complete sense that Tesco wants to strengthen its online offering in this way.

Tesco said today that it was going to spend less money on new hypermarkets and invest more in its online offering as well as refitting its existing stores. Staff levels in stores will also be increased.

It'll be interesting to see whether Tesco's recent problems are just a short-term blip or the start of a longer decline. Investing in online makes it more likely that the retailer can turn things around quickly.

More: Tesco launches money-off voucher scheme  |  Why I'm boycotting Amazon and where I'm going instead

Enjoyed this? Show it some love

Twitter
General

Comments (8)

  • msknight
    Love rating 31
    msknight said

    Doomed to failure. Maplin used to be a superb electrical company, the go-to for anything you wanted. Two decades later, it sells cheap Chinese tat and well overpriced products. A can of air duster cost me something like £15 or something, the other week. If these are the kinds of retailers that Tesco are punting, then they're doomed to failure, IMHO.

    Report on 18 April 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Mike10613
    Love rating 599
    Mike10613 said

    @msknight; I agree that Maplin has gone down hill a little but not all their products are tat. I had an extension ladder that is better than ones made in this country. My back up hard drive was good too. I did have problems with a router but they changed it without any problem, I think they need to improve because the service has deteriorated recently, unless it's just me.

    There has been a shift in the past year to people actually using stores more instead of buying online. The reason is, if the tat goes wrong; they can take it back to the store. I bought my last laptop from Amazon, but this time I popped down Currys and checked that it was what I wanted. I got it cheaper and with antivirus fro 3 years, free laptop bag, a free flash drive and a free wireless mouse. If Tesco take returns in store this could be a smart move; that is Amazon's weakness. They will need to improve staff training though.

    Report on 18 April 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Farab
    Love rating 24
    Farab said

    You seem to be missing the advantage of the internet to us. We can search for anything at the cheapest price in seconds. A two second Google search came up with an Air Duster Can for £3.99 at play.com, so there is no need to buy a £15 one regardless of who it's from. As for stuff breaking/failing, buy what you know is quality and if all else fails you are always covered when paying by credit card. I would rather buy 20 high priced items through the year at 30% discount online and have two fail (and chuck them in the bin, which I haven't had to yet), than pay full price just so that I've got a shop to take them to and experience bad customer service face to face.

    Report on 18 April 2012  |  Love thisLove  1 love
  • Basia02a
    Love rating 43
    Basia02a said

    I understood that credit cards only protected you for amounts over £100? Both the above are good points, but with more expensive items say over £50 returning them to the supplier is sometimes necessary

    Report on 18 April 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Offa
    Love rating 40
    Offa said

    I bought a computer at Tesco some years ago - a E machines and it was rubbish. Had to go back to e-machines within weeks ,came back months later, all software wiped of course.

    It lasted a couple of years and went again. I do take computers apart when possible but found the fault was the motherboard - so a really big problem.

    I would not buy a 'puter from a food store again. In fact I'll stick with good branded names such as my HP. The hassle of a puter breaking is too much to gamble on.

    Report on 18 April 2012  |  Love thisLove  1 love
  • farehamshortie
    Love rating 3
    farehamshortie said

    I never agree with the type of comment from Mike10613 about the advantage of returning items to a shop.

    That method requires the expense of travelling to the shop,possibly paying for parking and assumes you can actually carry the item. When you get there you will not be assured of getting a replacement it may need to go away to be fixed. Guess what when its fixed you then go back to the store and have to pick it up, more expense.

    Last time I had to return a faulty item bought via Amazon. Filled in an online form, man arrived next day to collect item. Replacement was delivered back to me.

    No expense on my part OK I am a home worker so waiting in for collection/delivery is not an issue but I would always prefer that then dragging myself and item into a store.

    Report on 18 April 2012  |  Love thisLove  2 loves
  • electricblue
    Love rating 643
    electricblue said

    Maplin used to be an electronics component supplier, not an electrical company and they do mainly supply overpriced, poor quality tat. As far as electronics components, a box of resistors which I pay £2 for (£2/1000) would be £100 from Maplin. Joke.

    Report on 19 April 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • SocketMan
    Love rating 0
    SocketMan said

    And amongst the first to sell an illegal product on the Tesco site is: Maplin.

    See http://tinyurl.com/IllegalChargers

    Report on 19 April 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves

Post a comment

Sign in or register to post a reply.

Related content

Our top deals

Credit card
company 		Balance transfers rate and period Representative
APR 		Apply
now

Barclaycard 27Mth Platinum Visa

0% for 27 months (3.5% fee) Representative 18.9% APR (variable) Apply
Representative example: assumed borrowing of £1,200, representative 18.9% APR (variable). Purchase rate 18.9% PA (variable). BT fee is reduced from 3.9% to 3.5% (T&Cs apply).

Barclaycard 25Mth Platinum Visa

0% for 25 months (2.4% fee) Representative 18.9% APR (variable) Apply
Representative example: assumed borrowing of £1,200, representative 18.9% APR (variable). Purchase rate 18.9% PA (variable). BT fee is reduced from 3.5% to 2.4% (T&Cs apply)

Halifax BT 25 Month MasterCard

0% for 25 months (2.5% fee) Representative 18.9% APR (variable) Apply
Representative example: assumed borrowing of £1,200, representative 18.9% APR (variable). Purchase rate 19.0% PA (variable).
W3C  Thank you for using CGWEBLIV1