TESCO - The Customer Relationship Management Champion

To sustain the growth achieved through the launch of Clubcards, Tesco decided to adopt a four pronged approach: launch better, bigger stores on a frequent basis; offer competitive prices (e.g. offering everyday low prices in the staples business); increase the number of products offered in the Value range; and focus on remote shopping services (this included the online shopping venture). To make sure that its prices were the lowest among all retailers, Tesco employed a dedicated team of employees, called 'price checkers.'...

Analysts said that this was not a very positive sign. They also said that while it was true that Tesco was the market leader by a wide margin, it was also true that Asda and Morrison were growing rapidly (Refer Exhibit II). Given the fact that the company was moving away from its core business within UK (thrust on non-food, utility services, online travel services) and was globalizing rapidly (reportedly, it was exploring the possibilities of entering China and Japan), industry observers were rather skeptical of its ability to maintain the growth it had been posting since the late-1900s. The Economist stated that the UK retailing industry seemed to have become saturated and that Tesco's growth could be sustained only if it ventured overseas...