Tesco has hired one of Facebook’s most senior European executives and is launching a slew of online entertainment stores as it gears up for battle with Amazon.
Blinkbox’s sales model allows it
to offer recent box office hits, such as Skyfall, much earlier than its
rivals
The Telegraph - 04 Mar 2013
The supermarket giant is preparing to launch two specialist ebook and music
retail websites later this year, alongside the Blinkbox online movie store which
it already owns.
Gavin Sathianathan, Facebook’s head of retail for Europe, the Middle East and
Africa, will lead the books operation, Blinkboxbooks. Mark Bennett, a former EMI
and Warner Music executive who now heads Sainsbury’s digital entertainment unit,
will head up Blinkboxmusic.
Tesco bought an 80pc stake in the Blinkbox film and TV site in 2011, in what
was widely interpreted as a defensive move against the likes of Amazon and
Apple, whose own movie services were rapidly eating into Tesco’s share of the
entertainment market.
Blinkbox customers can buy or rent new movies by downloading them over the
internet, ina similar way to movie rental services like Netflix or Amazon’s
Lovefilm. However, Blinkbox’s sales model allows it to offer recent box office
hits, such as Skyfall, much earlier than those rivals, and even ahead of pay-TV
operations like BSkyB.
Tesco has done little with the East London-based technology firm in the
nearly two years it has owned it, but is now poised to spring into action.
The three Blinkbox retail sites will sit separately from Tescos’ main online store and will only carry subtle Tesco branding. However, the supermarket will advertise the sites heavily in store and use them to ensure that customers in search of specialist online sites for books, music, films and TV box sets continue buying from the Tesco empire instead of falling into the habit of shopping for entertainment products elsewhere. It will target the millions of customers who still haven’t started shopping online in a big way.
In doing so, Tesco hopes to stop the steady march of customers going to Amazon for just one sort of item only to turn to the mammoth online retailer for a large range of household goods. That drift has already become ingrained in shopping habits in the US, where many customers regularly buy ordinary items such as nappies or cleaning products from Amazon, as well as luxury items like books and electrical goods.
Full story
And report from The Bookseller
The three Blinkbox retail sites will sit separately from Tescos’ main online store and will only carry subtle Tesco branding. However, the supermarket will advertise the sites heavily in store and use them to ensure that customers in search of specialist online sites for books, music, films and TV box sets continue buying from the Tesco empire instead of falling into the habit of shopping for entertainment products elsewhere. It will target the millions of customers who still haven’t started shopping online in a big way.
In doing so, Tesco hopes to stop the steady march of customers going to Amazon for just one sort of item only to turn to the mammoth online retailer for a large range of household goods. That drift has already become ingrained in shopping habits in the US, where many customers regularly buy ordinary items such as nappies or cleaning products from Amazon, as well as luxury items like books and electrical goods.
Full story
And report from The Bookseller
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