Tesco

Check
this out!

Opportunity

Going from big, bold and cold, to big bold and homely. Tesco is unfairly seen as a gigantic retailer with big, cold stores and not the most exciting food offer. In fact, this is not true as products are actually better than the competitors. Tesco is there to help, and the stores offer everything the customer needs under one roof – at reasonable prices. Indeed, Tesco is a big corporation, and the stores are very large, but that will not change anytime soon, so Tesco has to turn that fact into an explainable and ownable advantage to make customers like Tesco for what it is.

“An unusual and considerably more dynamic hypermarket than almost any other in the UK.”

RetailWeek

Strategy

The new store design should deliver upon five strategic pillars:

Brand

If you are very big and strong, you also need to be very kind and helpful – if you want to be liked.

Value

Add a quality communication layer as part of the value communication, and add bulky promo disruptions.

Quality and freshness

Produce sets the fresh tone of the store – make it a feast for the senses. Dramatize food craftsmanship through staff interacting with customers.

Service and helpfulness

‍Customer services/helpfulness as part of the brand architecture and customer journey. Create a contemporary community center out of café/community room.

Convenience

Big and bold on the outside, homely and helpful on the inside. Purchase help system – with curated customer journeys and missions.

Result

This store design project for Tesco, one of the world's largest food retailers, has been a collaborative team effort where Blink and Tesco's in-house design team, Wolff Olins and a few others have worked side by side. Blink's formal assignment: retail design including Big idea, 3D and 2D with omnichannel perspective. The pilot store opened in Swansea in June 2017. The overall experience is more foody and human scale. Tesco employees are proud of the store and so is Blink! It has been a privilege to be part of this major change project for one of the world's largest food retailers.