Blinkbox Founder Eyes U.K. Online Grocery Shopping
27 Jun, 2017 By: Erik Gruenwedel
British supermarket giant Tesco reportedly lost more than $51 million attempting to sell digital movies and TV shows through its proprietary Blinkbox platform.
Now Blinkbox co-founder Adrian Letts is spearheading the “Tesco Now” app aimed at enabling consumers in the London area to buy up to 20 popular grocery items (from a selection of 1,000) delivered to their home by moped for a fee.
Online grocery shopping isn’t new. One-hour delivery is. It’s a burgeoning market Amazon has entered via the Whole Foods acquisition, Prime Fresh (and AmazonFresh) — the membership program that includes access to subscription streaming service Prime Video.
“Shoppers' needs are changing and we want to offer a range of services that allow them to shop with us in a way that suits their needs. We look forward to hearing what they think of the new service,” Letts said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Tesco continues to sell DVD, Blu-ray Disc and digital movies and TV shows. It beat out Amazon and HMV in the first quarter for top video retailer with 17.2% market share. Amazon remained top overall retailer of combined music, video and video games with 17.8% market share — down 2.7% from a year ago, according to Kantar Worldpanel.