Speak or Scan - Tesco Groceries for Android launches

Please welcome the newest member of our mobile app family, Tesco Groceries for Android.

Yes, I know, you've wanted this app to launch for a long time. But the management team, designers and developers were patient, considered, and did things right so that we could launch an app to be proud of.
So take my hand and let's journey together through the delights of this android application. Would you like to be downloading while we walk? Sure, follow this link.

We start with the opening screen. with the various options for searching for products listed - including barcode scanning using the phone's camera:

However our team always likes to get better with each version of the app, so here we introduce voice searching for the first time:

Many customers of our other grocery apps love the concept of capturing their sudden thoughts of grocery products they need, even if they have no mobile signal, so here is the android recreation of the shopping list. Once you have a signal, tap what you have typed and a text search for that product will take place:

For all our customers who love to shop by department / aisle / shelf, of course this app caters for you too:

Here are your favourites - all product search results look like this, allowing you to see all products matching your search request, and a filtered view of just those on special offer. Once a product is in your basket, that same product has a green background if it appears in any search results:

Here is your basket:

...and you can choose a delivery slot at any time from a formatted view that can see up to three weeks ahead:

Congratulations are due to loads of people from the design prowess of Ribot, our fantastic new in-house mobile development team led by Hilda and Owen, and of course our amazing product owners for mobile, Annabel and Becky.

You'll find the Tesco Groceries app in the Android Marketplace, so download and enjoy!

In-store 'Sat-nav' up and working now in a Tesco branch - come and try it!

We now have a comprehensive 'sat-nav' system working INSIDE one of our Tesco stores!

The new service is able to show you where all your wanted products are on a store map, show you where you are on that map, and guide you round the store to pick up your products using the shortest route.

The prototype system is installed at the Tesco Extra, Romford (Gallows Corner) in north-east London, and we need to recruit a large control group of customers (including staff) who would like to try it out on their Android smart-phones.

Would you like to give it a go? If so apply to join our control group (info below) which will assess the accuracy and reliability of the service from a technical perspective.. If you're accepted, here is what you'll experience:

1. Install our prototype app on your Android smart phone (it's not in the Android Marketplace, you'll be sent a link to download it directly and you'll need to change a setting temporarily to allow non-marketplace apps on your phone to install it).
2. Build up a shopping list on it (just like you can with Tesco Finder).
3. Send that shopping list to another customer with the same app on their phone so they can go shopping on your behalf (so I'm happy for members of a household to be in the control group).
4. Head to Tesco Extra Romford (click for map link).
5. Start the app as you walk through the front door.
6. See a comprehensive store map with all the items in the shopping laid out on it.
7. Press a button and the app will find the shortest distance between the products and create a route for you.
8. Show you where you are on the map with a blue dot with an accuracy of within 3 metres.
9. Walk the store following the route. The blue dot will move around the map as you move around.
10. If you want to find any product 'adhoc', we'll find it in the store and show you where it is on the map. 

So now we need your help. If…

1. You live or work near Tesco Extra, Romford, and
2. You have an android phone with Android OS v2.2 or later installed on it, and 
3. You're prepared to change your phone's application settings temporarily to allow installation of apps from 'Unknown Sources' just while you install our app, and
4. You are prepared to run an R&D app and accept no liability from us if we cause your phone problems (although it doesn't do anything more than require access to your wifi and location-based services on your phone), and
5. You accept that the app, being R&D, is a bit geeky but you are prepared to fiddle and play with it, and
6. You accept the system, being R&D, may just not work from time to time.

...then I would love to hear from you.

To join the control group, write to our R&D project manager Ben Martin at ben.martin@techfortesco.com with subject 'SATNAV APP'. Ben (@realbenm) has been running this exciting project from the start, so he'll look forward to hearing from you. Indeed you'll receive further instructions in a few days after contacting us. In the message please indicate what make and model of Android handset you have, and the version of Android it is running.

The service is only available publicly to Android phone owners at this time, because we don't want the app in it's current state going into the public app stores. Only Android easily offers the ability to install apps from 'Unknown Sources'.

Please note that we won't be rolling this out to customers in general for a while because we have to think about how useful it's going to be. The system involves a lot of infrastructure installation in the stores so we need to get all kinds of people involved in thinking about the customer experience. It would be awful if we did all this work but few customers really used it.

We must also see how we would put the technology into our production applications and make it really easy for everyone to use. There's also the possibility that the infrastructure is not reliable right now.

This project is in R&D for a good reason, and we are allowed to prove the viability - or otherwise - of anything we might wish to offer our customers. Sometimes R&D is close to production, and at other times it is far away. 


Apologies to other companies offering this service who contacted me after my original blog post that kicked off this project. We've had to operate under strict NDA with our chosen provider and not even intimate there was a such as system under construction. Until now!

Big improvements to service for Tesco Finder app

I've just sent into live an update to the API service supporting Tesco Finder application. The focus has been on improving performance and accuracy of the service for the ever-increasing number of Tesco Finder users.

1. The "nearest branches" feature is now much more accurate. Before the update, the API tended to favour nearest branches by longitude (east-west of your location) over latitude (north-south), resulting in branches further away but in an east-west direction ending up higher up the list than those north-south. The API was behaving like this because changes in longitude are much greater for the same distance on the ground than changes in latitude where UK and Ireland are located on the planet's surface. I had over-compensated for this effect in my arithmetic. In fact, for longitude the conversion to distance is the same as latitude except the value is multiplied by the cosine of the latitude. Lesson learned!
2. Obtaining product information is much faster. This works by pooling the search session to a special account on our grocery API so all Tesco Finder users share the same login session - since you don't have to login as anyone to use Tesco Finder, the API has to login to a special grocery account in order to search for products and provide pricing and offer information. Before now, each search was preceded by a login for that user - nice and safe in the multi-threaded computing environment of the API. Sharing the same login session is a lot trickier because that session has to be locked to each user in turn while the search takes place. Fortunately it's so quick that the queue of search requests waiting in turn to lock the session does not build up.

Sharing resources in a multi-tasking web environment can be a dangerous game. Each process (usually a computer script preparing a web page to be sent to your browser - we call this a 'thread') must lock the resource so it doesn't get altered by other threads until this thread is done. If one thread keeps the lock for too long, the backed-up threads (usually other people waiting for their web page to arrive) can grow quickly. If the backup is severe and default memory allocation is exhausted, the operating system starts trying to manage memory by swapping it to and from disk, hitting CPU load and disk response times and slowing things down more. Soon the server hits the digital cliff and the infamous HTTP 500/Too Many Users results, or the server just stops responding at all.

That's why it's taken some time and lot of testing to ensure that this programming pain is worth the performance improvement for Tesco Finder customers. I'm glad to say it has worked out well - it's now live as of 1:30pm today.

Tesco TV Campaign Highlights iPhone App Barcode Scanning

If you're an Emmerdale fan than you will no doubt have seen the excellent and amusing 40-second TV commercial from our marketing department.

The commercial shows our "Tesco family" using the barcode scanning facility on their iPhone as they go about life. You'll see the ad popping up all over the place on commercial TV channels in the UK over the next four weeks.

If you haven't spotted the commercial yet, don't worry: I watched Emmerdale on your behalf and recorded the commercial (the things I do for you!). You can watch it now:

Don't forget that you can use the barcode scanner on the Tesco Groceries app only if you have an iPhone 4 or have upgraded your iPhone 3GS to IOS4 (which you can do easily using iTunes).

The groceries app will work on iPad and non-IOS4 iPhones but the barcode scanner is disabled for technical reasons and because the iPad has no camera!

Tesco Recipes App for iPad launches

Yes we've just launched our first (and frankly gorgeous) iPad app - Tesco Recipes.

The app was designed of course by our mobile app creators extraordinaire - Ribot, who used the 'salivation commences' slogan in their blog post as that sums up for me regarding what this app is all about.

Andy Beale, IT Manager into whom our fledgling production mobile development team reports, commented:

Special thanks to Sreelatha in India who has worked tirelessly to test the application and who is a cornerstone of Tesco's engineering team. Also thanks to Owen Day who actually led the project for IT at Tesco and helped the team to release this for our customers before Christmas. 

The application's mix of gorgeous presentation, access to over 1000 recipes and the ability to add ingredients straight to your Tesco.com grocery basket is just sensational (click images below for bigger picture):

In their blog post, Ribot wrote:

Christmas has come a day or two early this year for those that have been yearning for a source of inspiration whilst grocery shopping on their iPads… Well, we’re happy to announce that Tesco Recipes has been launched!

Bringing together the mouth-watering and inspiring photos and recipes from Tesco Real Food and the simplicity and utility of the Tesco grocery shopping experience, you can now purchase all the ingredients for your favourite recipes with ease.

This project wouldn’t have been possible without all the hard work by Rob, Jerome and Ian – the designers at ribot, Neil and Lei – the very talented ‘developers’ and of course Becky and co. from the Tesco team!

Happy shopping and Happy Christmas to all the foodies out there!

I couldn't put is better myself. Well done everyone involved!
Click here to go to iTunes to download the app for your iPad.

How to make "Sat-nav" work inside a Tesco Store

If you have been reading in the media about my proposal to have a form of in-store "satellite navigation"-style location based awareness for Tesco Finder app users, I thought I would take you on a dive into the sort of research we're doing to see if we can make this work.

Now we don't do 'tech' for its own sake so let's examine the use cases:

1. "As the customer, I wish to be guided to the product I am looking for in the store".
2. "As the customer, I wish to be alerted by my phone whenever I am close to a product I have stored in my shopping list".
3. "As the customer, I wish to be alerted by my phone whenever I am close to products on special offer that are similar to products in my shopping list".
4. "As the customer, I want you to show me a map of the store layout, and on it show where both I am and where all the products in my shopping list are located".

Wow, we need some good data to satisfy these requests! Let's see what we have:

1. We know where all grocery products are in every UK Tesco branch as long as it is bigger than an Express-sized format. This data is already provided to Tesco Finder users.
2. We are already obtaining good aisle and shelf location spatial data from software that is used by Tesco merchandising teams that creates planograms. We haven't made this live yet but it's looking good. Tesco Finder would take this data and draw out all the aisles on the screen. We're making sure we describe the layout using as few characters of data as possible (I hope other app writers think as carefully about your data plan limit and keep the amount of data transferred down as much as all Tesco app authors do).

So we know every product that every Tesco branch stocks, and where it is laid out spatially in that branch. We know what products are on special offer and what the nature of that offer is. We just need to update the Tesco API server interface to make the spatial/map data available in as few characters as we can, and code a version of Tesco Finder to support the store map. That work is in progress, and we have found everything we need to make it work.

So "all" that is left now is to work out where the customer is, on a phone that loses the GPS signal as soon as they enter the Tesco branch. Hmmm...!

As you can imagine, all of our Tesco stores have wifi wireless network access points built into various parts of the building. These provide staff with the ability to enjoy network connectivity from their various handheld devices as they go about their tasks, so this is a critically important part of our in-store infrastructure.

Each access point has a unique identifier - a Media Access Control (MAC) address - which it supplies in every piece of signal data it transmits. We can tune into the wireless data chatter and read the MAC address without actually having to connect the phone to the access point. Indeed the phone doesn't have to transmit anything - just listen.

If we were to:

1. Tell the phone (using the API) where the access points are on the store map and what their unique MAC addresses are, and
2. Get the phone to measure the relative signal strengths of the wireless signals coming from these MAC addresses...

..then we could get the Tesco Finder app to work out where it thinks it is on the map.

Some fairly simple mathematical formulae is all that's required but given that a picture paints a thousand vector symbols, you can see how it would work in this diagram (click image for larger version):

I have colour-coded 6 access points so you can see how the phone might work out where it is in the store. Given that the lower signal strength is most likely to mean a more distant access point, and because the phone knows where all the access points are located, it can work out where it is.

Job done? Not quite... radio waves are a finicky phenomenon (I should know as I am a licensed radio amateur). From a radio point of view, Tesco sells a diabolic mix of products that reflect, refract and absorb signals. As the phone moves around, these three corrupters of signal purity will be in full force wrecking the ability of the app to work out where it is.

For example, walk down the aisle full of bottled waters and it is quite possible that nearer access points will become weaker than more distant ones as these stronger signals are absorbed more by the water. Walk down the baked bean aisle and those tins are reflecting signal like you wouldn't believe. These rarely affect the staff equipment since the system allows staff devices to roam quickly between access points. It's only us who needs to know about each particular access point. 

So now you know why this an R&D project. Tesco Finder needs to work out (probably through some sort of averaging) where it thinks it is in a way that is quick and accurate enough to be credible to the customer. If we crack this, it means that we can provide in-store "satnav" style help with zero change in the infrastructure. We're going to have a damn good go!

P.S. Once again can I point out to journalists that I am Head of R&D for Tesco.com (which just so happens to that part of Tesco pushing apps out in an R&D context). I am not Head of R&D for Tesco. Somebody else is!

Nice review of Tesco Groceries app by BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones

The BBC's Technology Correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, has written a nice blog article on the Tesco Groceries app now we have updated it to include barcode scanning.

It's always good when people I respect are enjoying the fruits of the work coming out of Tesco.com!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/10/mobile_barcodes_and_smarter_sh.html

Tesco Groceries for iPhone - now with Barcode Scanner

Our Tesco Groceries for iPhone app has been updated to enable you to scan barcodes using the iPhone's camera (the same way that Tesco Finder for iPhone does).

Now you can scan any EAN barcode and, as long as the product is sold in your home store, you can see the product's details and add it straight to your current shopping basket. This should really add to the convenience of grocery home shopping, so enjoy this new facility.

To update the app, just launch App Store on your iPhone or iTunes on your computer and follow the easy instructions to download the free update. If you're now convinced to download Tesco Groceries for iPhone for the first time, click here to get the app.

Missing products and delivery slots on Tesco Groceries for iPhone / Nokia

I don’t get any products, favourites or delivery slots when I use my iPhone or Nokia app - what’s wrong?

If you get this problem, it means is that your grocery account is set to an ‘accessiblity’ profile. In order to make your account work with the app it needs to be displayed in ‘standard’ profile.

Changing your profile is easy but you do need to go to our web site and make a change to one of the settings. Follow these instructions:

1. Login to your grocery account at http://www.tesco.com/groceries
   
2. Click on ‘My Account’.
   
3. Scroll down the screen and click on “Accessibility options”.
   
4. Now you will see “Use access site” next to a checkbox with a tick in it – uncheck the box.
   
5. Click the “Confirm” button and wait for the page that appears saying “Your changes have been successfully updated”.
   
6. Finally click “Logout” at the bottom of the screen. Your account will now be displayed in ‘standard’ profile.
   

Your account should now be compatible with your Tesco Groceries iPhone and Nokia apps. If you still have problems when you have performed these actions, please give our customer service centre a call on 0845 6756999.

We are working to ensure that customers won’t have to do this in the future but for now, following the instructions above will make your account and app work together successfully.

Tesco.com Marketing's Ian Crook at Nokia World

Tesco.com's Marketing Director Ian Crook was presenting at Nokia World today, talking about our Tesco Groceries for Nokia app.

This photo from Twitter user @jmacdonald captured our man Ian in action (click the image for full size):

Tesco Groceries for iPhone - #1 Lifestyle App and in top 10 for iTunes UK

Thanks to all of you who have downloaded our Tesco Groceries for iPhone application.

The app is achieving a continuous top 10 position in iTunes for 'most downloaded free app' (it's at No. 5 right now) and is No.1 in the 'Lifestyle" category in the time period since it launched last Thursday.

Of course downloads aren't everything - we'll be monitoring usage to see what customers use / avoid / love / hate about the application and tune it up appropriately.

Feedback pretty good too. Oh, indulge me:

Downloaded it on 3G in sainsburys and went on to do shopping from tesco first time login no problem favourites loaded no problem 86 item order done and confirmed in 12 minutes well done Tesco.

BREAKING: Tesco Grocery app for Nokia now live to customers on OVI store

I've just been informed within the last 10 minutes that our Nokia grocery home shopping application for Nokia S60-series phones is now live for download by customers from the Nokia OVI store.

If you have a Nokia phone model 800, N97, N97 mini, X6, 5230 or 5530 then you're all set:
Download and enjoy!

Order your Tesco.com groceries through a Facebook app

As we get more customers onto our new 'Project Martini' grocery service, the time is coming when our army of third-party developers can unleash their Tesco Grocery API powered applications on the world.

One of these developers is James Mills, an IT programmer who came along to our Tesco TJAM day back in August last year.

James has developed a Facebook application called 'My Shopping Assistant' which allows Facebook users to shop groceries with us.

If you're a Facebook user, take a look by following this link:

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=126311593291&ref=ts

As soon as the API defect list is completed (so there aren't any defects!) and all our customers are moved across (a couple of weeks or so) then James will really be able to power the application up. Even now you can perform some of the core functions of grocery shopping through James's Facebook app.

James is also working on a shopping application for the O2 Joggler device that uses the Tesco Grocery API - he has a video of it in action here - fantastic work, James!

You'll see more third-party applications using the Tesco Grocery API coming on-stream in the following weeks. If you're a third party developer who uses our API, send me some blurb about your application and I'll announce it here when you're ready for launch.

Update: Text in this article was altered - changed 'My Grocery Assistant' to its correct name of 'My Shopping Assistant'.

Mobile Phone App Stores - Handset Manufacturers vs Cellular Operators

The following post is my own opinion, not necessarily the opinion of my colleagues or anyone else at Tesco. I should also point out that I am project lead for R&D (Research and Development) at Tesco.com, not all of Tesco as some of the media have stated!

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Now maybe it's just me. Maybe I don't "get it". Maybe someone could enlighten me?.. but..

What is the point of a mobile phone 'app store' run by a cellular operator?

As we build up momentum with our mobile strategy, you can imagine that our primary focus is ensuring that our web site will work on the majority of mobile phones. I know that's stating the obvious and I hope to goodness that if you're a web site owner you have a similar strategy in place.

On the other hand, there are a few web site services at Tesco.com that deserve the 'special experience' that a fully-formed application can bring - Grocery and Tesco Clubcard being prime examples. The decision to write a fully-formed app rather than adapt the web is based around how important it is to create a best-of-breed experience on mobile phones that takes account of the challenges of being mobile. For example, the grocery application will be useful because it will allow customers to build up a basket without needing a constant internet connection (say, on a train journey with those annoying signal-free tunnels).

If we write an app rather than adapt the web, then we need to code for particular makes and models of phone, because each handset can have a different operating system, screen size and shape, and amount of processing power. Yes there are 'app adapters' where you write an application once and it can be compiled to work on several handsets, but if we are going to make the 'app' effort then we may as well do it properly and write well-targetted code.

So, we need to work with the manufacturer of each targeted handset model to perform the development process, from obtaining the software development kit right through to placing the finished app in their App store.

The nice thing about this process is that we also get engagement from the handset manufacturer and can access technical support (and I dear-say some marketing opportunities too). The real 'win' is that we can then reach any customer using that particular handset, on whatever cellular network they reside.

All handset manufacturers have - or are getting - this development / support / marketing infrastructure in place, visibly seen by customers through App stores - Apple App Store, Nokia OVI, Android Market, and others.

All this is great: If we want to target, say, a Nokia N97 because we like the interface and think customers would get an engaging experience with a Tesco application on it then that's a decision we can make, and work with Nokia to ensure that all customers who have an N97 can get the app and enjoy a great experience. Placing the app in the Nokia OVI store seems obvious to us - it will reach all Nokia customers with N97s across the UK on whatever cellular network they happen to be on. "Lesser" phones won't see the app on OVI because the system detects their phone and filters out apps that won't work.

So please, help me understand why we would even think about putting an app into a cellular provider's app store?

1. Why would we only target a certain cellular provider's users? We want to reach all customers! Do we then have to go round to all stores? Yes - but would be easier targeting the one store created by the handset manufacturer.
2. What about new unlocked handsets (not tied or branded to a cellular provider)? They only have a choice of their handset manufacturer's store anyway.
3. What if customers change cellular provider? Do apps downloaded from one store get barred from working? Even if they do keep working, is there a possibility that a customer may think they will stop, so feel they are locked in to their current provider (and maybe resent us for apparently forcing this situation?).

The fact is, you need a handset for mobile communication so why not work with the people who built that handset? App stores provided by hardware manufacturers offer a simple message of 'these apps will work on your phone - and we know it because we built your phone and we've tested the app!'

I think cellular providers' app stores will confuse the message for customers and I'm prepared to say so publicly because I'd like to see a debate started somewhere so I can understand whether cellular app stores are any more than a desire by providers to somehow get in on the game for the sake of it.

In my opinion, cellular providers don't want to see the elephant in their room which is that they are becoming just a way of connecting to the internet. They're trying to think up ways of being more than an internet service provider but actually that is what they are. The 'power' is in the handset app/web browser and the content service providers offering web sites and services.

It's not the first time they've tried this - in 2005 I was invited to speak at a conference about mobile payments (where you pay by mobile phone and it goes on your cellular bill). I warned the organisers that I'd be a black sheep and even forwarded the slides of what I was going to say, but they accepted me anyway.

I told the conference that Tesco has a perfectly fine payment system in place on the website already, nice and simple for customers to understand and that all that was needed was to have an internet connection from handset to our web site and customers can type in their credit card just as they always have. Oh, and that every single shopping website in the world works like this - no need for any cellular financial intervention, thank you.

I'll never forget spotting the furious shaking of the head from the back of the room from one of the sponsors of the event. Everyone else was nodding.

I said it then and I'll say it now: All customers need on their handset is an internet connection between their app and our service - and nothing more.

I'll add: Given apps need to target a particular handset model, who is best able to get that app to all customers in the lest confusing manner - a cellular provider or the actual manufacturer of that handset?

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If you are a cellular provider with an App Store, I would be happy for you to guest-write a post for this blog with your counter argument which I will publish un-edited (unless it's an ad of course!). Contact me at nick@lansley.com to take up this opportunity.

Apple use Tesco Finder in their iPhone advertising campaign

I've just received the artwork for the latest Apple iPhone campaign, and so I can reveal that recently Apple contacted us to ask if they could feature our R&D iPhone app Tesco Finder in their latest poster / newspaper advertisement (see above - closeup of Tesco Finder entry below).

I said, "Yes".

Actually, being ever the consummate professional, I may have toned my response down for your benefit. In reality it was more, "YES PLEASE OMG THANK YOU!!!", knowing me.

Thanks Apple :)

Tesco Clubcard iPhone app launches

Off we go on our journey to bring a great Tesco Clubcard experience directly to your mobile phone!

Clubcard is Tesco’s way of saying thank you for shopping with us - it’s easy - simply scan your Clubcard every time you shop. For every £1 you spend on qualifying products at Tesco, whether in-store or online, we’ll reward you 2 Clubcard points.

However if you’re like me, sometimes your Tesco Clubcard sometimes doesn’t quite make it to your wallet, or it’s slipped down the bottom of your bag and you can’t find it. The good news is that my iPhone is always on me so wouldn’t it be a great idea if it could quickly display the barcode of my Clubcard when I’m next at the checkout? The first version of this application is quite simply to do that - bring a virtual version of your Clubcard to your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Start the application the first time, type in your Clubcard details, and from then on whenever you start the app, it quickly displays the barcode seen on your plastic card which can be scanned at our checkouts. No more worries about losing points.

That’s just the start of the journey - we intend to do lots more with this app in the future, such as display your points balance - we’re even looking at finding ways of bring e-vouchers straight to your Clubcard app so you can use them at the checkout directly from your phone.

The application was written by Ben Martin, a member of the 'Group Technology & Architecture' team (Tesco PLC's larger version of Tesco.com's R&D team!) and I think he's done a great job as well as being excited by what he can bring to the app in terms of new features as he continues work on this project with the Clubcard team.

Anticipating your questions:

So the application just displays the barcode? Can’t it do anything else?

Not in this very first version. The aim is that, because you love your iPhone you are more likely to have it on you when you approach the Tesco checkout, so it is simple to display the barcode and earn Clubcard points. Once you have this application on your iPhone we will be introducing more features to it over the coming weeks and months.

I notice that the account for this app is "Tesco PLC" and not "Tesco.com R&D Team". Do you have two accounts now?

Yes we do! Our work with Tesco Finder and Tesco Wine Finder has excited people all over Tesco, and a cross-functional team is being put together to create great applications for all kinds of Tesco "stuff" - indeed a complete mobile and device strategy that goes way beyond iPhone. We want to be able separate mainstream production applications from prototyping apps of the sort we have launched (and will launch) under the Tesco.com R&D Team banner, thus the launch of the Tesco PLC account. We'll use this difference across all 'app stores' and downloads for your phone or device, so you know what to expect.

The difference is that Tesco PLC apps are fully supported production-quality creations, and Tesco.com R&D Team apps are experimental prototypes that we bravely try out on you to see what you think, notwithstanding the fact that we intend these apps to have a nice long shelf life and we are happy to support them within the team.

The application is not accepting my Staff Privilege Clubcard number or Republic of Ireland Clubcard number. Why?

The number ranges are different for these Clubcards and we can’t verify them at the moment. We’ll bring you this feature very soon, though.

How do I find the Tesco Clubcard app?

Go to the App Store on iTunes or your iPhone and search 'Tesco" or "Tesco Clubcard". If iTunes is installed on the computer on which you are reading this entry, try this link:

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tesco-clubcard/id351841850?mt=8