The news that caught my attention this week is the opening of Tesco's online clothing store. I unfortunately don't know a lot about the company, but I was surprised that they didn't already have an online store. I have then decided to read all the articles I could find. The ones that retained my attention are from The New York Times, Financial Times, Wall street journal, and the Telegraph.
The company launched Saturday their online fashion shop. The U.K. retail giant wanted to have an online presence to compete with established retailers such as Next, Mark & Spencer and Asos. Their decision seems to be based on the prediction that the market for buying clothes over the Internet will grow by 26% in the U.K. in 2009 according to market research company Mintel. Moreover, the company also wanted to join the fastest growing online market.
Terry Green, tesco's clothing chief executive, said that the company aims to generate 10% of clothing sales online in the future. Tesco is number 4 actually in the clothing market and would like, as any company I guess, to become number 1. The online clothing store will definitely help the company to reach a larger target since half of the U.K.'s population don't have access to the largest Tesco stores. Another reason why Tesco's online store was probably crucial for the company is because their sales growth was limited by store space and the majority of their clothing products were not available in 80% of their stores.
All the different articles I read related the facts with an objective view. I although particularly enjoyed the ones from Financial times and the New York Times.
I found that the FT was really specific and related the facts in a clear way. I enjoyed the way the author was telling the news because it put the emphasis on the assault that Tesco launched on the online clothing market. Moreover, even if the article was quite short, all the main elements were included and the author even wrote about their long-term strategy.
In comparison, The New York Times published a longer article that seemed to push the competition more than the expansion of Tesco’s. Even if the main objective of the article was to show how Tesco could affect other companies, there was no evidence of bias and the author described the story more in a business vision than a summary of the event.
As for the Telegraph, I didn’t really enjoy the way they related the story. Their article was more focused on the fact that Asos will be one of the biggest losers from Tesco’s entrance into online fashion retail. The article was objective, but not optimistic and didn’t relate de fact about Tesco new online store. Moreover, there was too many percentage and no explications.
Finally, the wall street journal was useful because it provided all the important data with an objective view. Everything I needed to know was there. The author related the facts as they were and wrote a summary of what was happening.
To conclude, I think that even though I read 4 different articles, it wasn’t really useful. I could have read only one, because they all related the information I needed regarding Tesco’s new online fashion shop. The facts were there and half of all the articles were basically the same information. I would have liked to know a little more about the competition and how Tesco’s new online store will change the online retail market of the U.K.
Sources:
1) Wall Street Journal: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tesco-launches-online-clothing-store-2009-10-03
2) Financial Times: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/23266332-af87-11de-ba1c-00144feabdc0.htmllaunches
3) The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/10/02/business/business-uk-tesco-clothing.html
4) Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/questor/6258293/Asos-will-feel-the-competition-from-Tesco.html
