Tesco announces Walmart-style media and insight platform with Dunnhumby
Tesco and Dunnhumby are launching the “UK’s largest closed loop grocery media and insight platform”, the companies announced today.
Alessandra Bellini, chief customer officer at Tesco, and Claire Lorains, interim CEO of Dunnhumby and group innovation director at Tesco, announced the Tesco Media and Insight Platform powered by dunnhumby.
Bellini compared it to Walmart’s Connect and Target’s Roundel media platforms and other UK retailers like Boots have had similar propositions this year with their own media platforms for brands.
She highlighted that this new platform works with Tesco Clubcard’s “rich” data insights, which was the first loyalty scheme of its kind for the grocery market when it launched 26 years ago.
While this is not deviating from Tesco’s “customer-first approach” or focussed on selling first-party data, it is “redefining value to become the customers’ favourite” and allowing brands to use tools and products to better engage with customers and know what they want.
Bellini highlighted: “The majority of our customers that receive relevant propositions and offers, they are ok with it. It is very important we do not bombard people with too much.
“We could sell every square metre of Tesco stores and monetise all of it but I do not want to do that. I do not think that is the right way to do that. We will all lose out. It does not build trust. The pull is there from the customers and the interest is there from the brand as well.”
Personalised recommendations at the right time when people have the right purchase intent is key, as Bellini commented: “The only way to understand what our customers want is through accurate data turned into insight, turned into personalised recommendations.”
She told attendees of Tesco and Dunnhumby’s upfronts this morning that the retailer reaches 20 million people which is 80% of the population of the UK, on top of that it reaches 5 million in central Europe and Ireland through banking and groceries.
Nearly 30% of all the shopping in grocery is now online, Bellini explained. She added that overall ecommerce and retail media is “where the spend is going as you can really track and measure the impact on your sales”.
In this vein, Lorains described retail media as being “the best of both worlds” of broadcast and digital platforms as it enables efficient targeting at the point of purchase.
GroupM’s first ecommerce report predicted retail-focused ecommerce would grow to $7 trillion in annual sales activity, or 25% of retail sales, by 2024. If that continues, then by 2027 global retail ecommerce sales could be an estimated $10 trillion.
Dunnhumby, founded by Edwina Dunn and Clive Humby, helped Tesco establish the Clubcard loyalty scheme in 1994. It is now a global data science consultancy that is wholly owned by Tesco.