Tesco.com has opened its fifth dotcom store, creating 700 jobs, at Crawley in West Sussex as online sales grow.
The shop, dedicated to fulfilling grocery orders placed online, will enable Tesco to create more delivery slots and offer more products. More than 26,000 lines are currently available to order online, including freshly-baked bread, with some 1,000 loaves baked in the dotcom store every morning.
Tesco says annual like-for-like sales growth of 15% is driving its dotcom store expansion.
“Dotcom stores are an increasingly important part of our service for customers,” said Barney Burgess, chief operating officer for grocery home shopping.
“More and more customers are using their computers and smartphones to shop. This state-of-the art facility will increase our capacity in the area, enabling us to offer an excellent and convenient service to our customers.”
Products in the dotcom store are stacked according to their popularity with customers. Tesco says this helps personal shoppers to work more efficiently, filling trays that move to them on conveyor belts stretching almost two miles through the store with goods that are close at hand. Some 12,000 trays will be handled each day at the 24/7 dotcom store by personal shoppers and drivers.
The opening of the Crawley store, which features a range of energy-efficient measures, adds to a network that now includes Enfield, Greenford, Aylesford and Croydon.
The opening comes days before Tesco’s first TV advertising campaign of 2013, which will feature the online grocery service. In the ad, set to air for the first time on Wednesday January 23, a mother daydreams about who is picking her order.
Tesco’s customer communications director, Paul Morris, said: “We set out to show that each shop for online customers is made with care. Tesco personal shoppers – warriors or not – seek out the freshest produce and longest code life dates just like our customers would do.”
