Tesco has blamed high costs for fulfilment in part for its decision to close its non-food website Tesco Direct. The site sells a range of general merchandise, including technology, homeware, clothing and toys for delivery or collection.
The retailer will close the business on 9 July 2018 following a detailed review which also blamed high costs for online marketing. As a result of the ceasing of trade the company’s fulfilment centre at Fenny Lock, which handled the Tesco Direct orders, will also close.
Instead the company is to bring its general merchandise offer into the Tesco.com main site – a process it says it began a little while ago. It said there would be no other changes to the Tesco grocery home shopping service as a result of the announcement.
Around 500 staff will be at risk of redundancy. “This decision has been a very difficult one to make, but it is an essential step towards establishing a more sustainable non-food offer and growing our business for the future,” said Charles Wilson, CEO of Tesco UK & ROI.
Image credit: Tesco
