Tesco launches online hub for moms

Wanna Swuddigul, digital and online director, said now was the time for businesses to penetrate specific segments of shoppers, as mass communication and marketing activities might not work any more. Particular groups of shoppers have greater demand for companies to communicate with them directly to understand their insights. Tesco Lotus yesterday launched an online destination for mothers, Tescolovesbaby.com (or www.lazada.co.th/tesco-loves-baby/), a social-networking hub. The company claims this is the first social commerce strategy in the Thai retail sector allowing mums to share their experiences of child-rearing and do all the shopping they need in the same place.

“Mothers have been recognised by Tesco Lotus as a specific group of customers with great potential commercially. Of the 12 million shoppers who visit our stores every week, about 3 million are mothers with young children. Products from mums and babies now account for about 30 per cent of the total products at Tesco Lotus stores,” Wanna said.

“Customers in this group have a similar need to do the best they can for their children, by giving the best possible care to them at all hours of the day. They wish to exchange experiences with other mums and seek expert advice. However, most parents do not have the time to get out of the house for meetings and shopping for their families,” she said.

Wanna said the growth of this segment was in line with Thailand’s moderate annual birth rate, which is about 600,000.

“We would like to make ‘Tesco Loves Baby’ a social hub bringing together the common situations faced by new mothers and all the facts they need to bring up their children,” she said.

She added that professionals would be available to share expert information and a Web board would allow mums to share their child-rearing experiences and photos of their children with one another. Also in the hub, there is an online shopping channel for the convenience of parents who cannot find the time to leave the house. More than 2,000 product items from leading brands are available at the online hub.

“Digital-media trends are strong, and our internal studies have found that mothers with young children display high usage of digital media. They have changed their shopping behaviour towards online media, and search for expert information as guidelines to rear their children and to choose the baby products they want to buy.” 

Wanna said Tesco Lotus expected more than 100,000 mothers to visit its online hub over the next 12 months.

Having developed its e-commerce business for three years, the company now offers more than 20,000 fresh food and grocery products through its main Tesco Lotus Shop Online channel. Meanwhile, more than 5,000 lines of electrical goods, electronics and household utensils are retailed through Lazada, one of Thailand’s leading online department stores.

 Wanna said online shopping currently contributed less than 5 per cent of total sales at Tesco Lotus. However, in some developed markets such as South Korea and Malaysia, the contribution from online shopping is as high as 10 per cent.