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!

Tesco Groceries app for Android not far away now

I've recently spotted this article on Infinite Path:
Are big businesses missing out by putting the iPhone above Google Android?

Excerpt:

Take Tesco for example. It’s hard to avoid their TV ads promoting their iPhone app which allows people to scan barcordes to generate a shopping list and then order items. A great idea, which makes it even more shocking they are yet to launch an Android version.
It seems they’re working on it. Nick Lansley, who blogs on the supermarket’s technological endeavours, has said as much, but that was back in September and four months down the line there’s no indication of when it will be launched.

So I found out the latest news from our mobile dev team then posted this tweet:

@techfortesco Tesco Groceries app for Android not far away now. Patience, android fans, for just a few more weeks. We want it perfect.

I think that says it all - and I'll keep using my Google Nexus One as my main 'phone until at least the app has launched (colleagues keep testing me during meetings to confitm that it is still my primary phone!).

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.

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.

Rakesh's Interactive Visual Feast for Tesco Groceries

I'd like you to meet another of our R&D team and introduce to you his pursuit of making searching for products on our website rather more interesting - indeed exciting to use - than it is right now.

So here is Rakesh Ravuri. Say hello!

We're going to get you to experience this proof of concept right now on your computer if you like - but first a little background from Rakesh himself:

This proof of concept explores a new way of searching on Tesco.com. This is based on Microsoft's Seadragon and Deep Zoom technologies. The demo highlights a new way of searching using a series of linked data and demonstrates going from many things in a search, down to a few things using the filtering and being able to see clear patterns amongst that data. The demo uses Pivot's main feature "Collections", they combine large groups of similar items in product catalogue, so you can view the relationships between individual pieces of information in a new way. By visualizing hidden patterns, Pivot allows users to interact with thousands of pieces of data in a unique way with multiple page refreshes and minimum server round trips.

Before you delve in, read through the instructions below so you are clear about what to do and what to expect. You'll need to have the latest version of Microsoft Silverlight installed on your computer to make it work - and we're finding the Mac version doesn't work as well as the PC version for this demo (no images appear) so get thee to a Windows XP/Vista/7/Server2008 computer before continuing:

1. When you have read these instructions, head to this web address: http://labs.techfortesco.com/superstore where you should see an outline of our grocery service and you appear to be logged in as Rakesh.
2. Now type in a grocery search word into the text box on the right and press the Return key (for example, enter apples or chocolate - or anything else you think we sell):
   
3. Next the screen will change and load a Silverlight control. If you don't have the most up to date version of Silverlight installed, you will be prompted to download and install it. If you have to install Silverlight you will need to close the browser and open it again, then go back to http://labs.techfortesco.com/superstore and start again. This time after pressing Enter, you should see an explosion of products appearing in squares on the screen, and a set of filter boxes on the left (click any image below to see a larger version):
   
4. Use your mouse to drag the squares around, and use the mouse's zoom wheel to scroll in and out of this landscape of squares:
   
5. Zoom right in and you will see the product's description fade in. Zoom out and the description fades away:
   
   
6. Now click on some of the filters and sort options on the left. These filters are derived from the various attributes of the set of products that were initially returned from your search. Note how some product squares zoom away if they are not in the filtered list, and soar back in if you change the filter and they are now relevant again:
   
7. Type in more search words in the box at the top left (above the filters) and note how products are being suggested to you (just the same as Google and Bing searches now offer suggestions as soon as you type in a character). Note how you can get to your wanted products with far fewer keystrokes than before.
   

The interface is completely absorbing (indeed mildly additive) to use and you will soon find yourself adept at whirling through the various products searching and sorting filters. I showed this proof of concept a couple of weeks ago to a mesmerised audience at an IT showcase, some of who were wanting to grab hold of the mouse and try it themselves.

Rakesh's quest to make grocery searching more of an interactive visual feast has certainly worked, so go and try for yourself (it's running on a powerful but lone lab server so not too many of you all at once please). Just don't forget that this is proof of concept - R&D are here to excite the business and prove the point that this is all technically possible. Job done spectacularly well, Rakesh!

Tesco Groceries - for Windows Phone 7

Yes we've made a Tesco Groceries app for Windows Phone 7!
Designed by Ribot, built by our newly formed mobile development team (well done guys and girls).

Watch the live webcast here - the Tesco app is part of the demo in this webcast.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/windowsphone/liveEvent.aspx

I'll update the link to archived footage showing the app when Microsoft make it available.



(Android - Android - Android .... work in progress...!)

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 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.

Multiple mobile users can add to the same Tesco.com grocery order

A great question has come from @sitereport on Twitter:

Can multiple iPhone users add items to the same order?

Technically, as long as the users are logged in to the same account, then yes you can add to the same order (or change quantities or remove the item).

Indeed, this can be a mix of anyone on the iPhone app, the Nokia app, and the web site - each keeps the others up to date.

I say 'technically' because if someone checks out an order, the basket is emptied ready for the next order and other users on the same account are not alerted to this unless they tap the 'basket' button which causes the app to ask our servers what the current basket status is.

Always check the basket contents regularly before adding items if you know someone else is likely to be doing the same thing.

Tesco Groceries app for iPhone / iPod Touch - Walkthrough

Let's take a walkthrough of the Tesco Groceries app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (the latter running in "iPhone mode").

Here is the opening screen (when you first use the app, you will be asked to tap in your Tesco.com grocery login email and password). You can choose a delivery slot, and see when the next order is due (which you can amend if you wish):

The Shopping List is your own memo pad, allowing you to type any product name in free-form text, perfect for remembering items quickly as you think of them. You could easily use the app in any shop as an electronic version of a written list, or tap the text to perform a live product search at Tesco so we can entice you with great prices and special offers:

Tapping the square next to the item makes a "tick" appear, just as you would tick a paper list as you choose products:

If you're like me, then the first place to go when putting together an order is to use the Favourites list. When you registered your account and used a Clubcard, your Favourites list stores all the items you have previously purchased online and in-store. 

You can also filter your favourites to view just those on special offer.

In the example below, notice that one of the products has a green background - this means that product is already in your basket. All searches showing products in your basket will be highlighted this way so you can change the quantity or even remove them if you wish.

Here is the 'shop' screen. Either type in some text to find the product you are looking for, or follow the department - aisle - shelf hierarchy to browse for products:

Here is an example text search for chips. Again we highlight products on special offer:

Finally here is the basket. From here you tap the checkout button which will cause the app to start the iPhone's Safari browser which will connect into a checkout special page designed for iPhone on the Tesco.com grocery web site. If you are called Paolo then your delicious chips and beer diet will soon be on its way. For everyone else, at least you'll get the entire grocery range to choose from - on average that's more than 20,000 products. Healthier products are available...!

So there you are - our new little app for iPhone giving you personal, pocketable access to our complete grocery home shopping service. It's taken a year of planning, design, coding and testing by a fantastic team across Tesco.com and our mobile design and development partner Ribot.

Now it's yours. Enjoy!

Tesco Groceries app for iPhone now live in iTunes App Store

Here it is:

Tesco.com's grocery heart and soul in a little app.

This changes everything. Again.

("Again", because we launched on Nokia first!)

Tesco and Ribot present this powerful pocket of grocery home shopping to you now. We simply call it Tesco Groceries which says so much in so few words.

Oh, the decisiveness of purpose, passion for excellence and focus of hard work by so many people for a year to give birth to this little bundle of joy, the love child of Tesco.com and Ribot our mobile design and development partner....*

If you have iTunes on your computer, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, follow this link:

http://itunes.com/apps/TescoGroceries

Walkthrough follows in the next article.


* Yes of course I'm sounding O.T.T. - this has been the centre of my working life for over a year now, so indulge me. Ribot have put their all into this little app and I salute them. Normal service will be resumed after a celebratory drink or two tonight methinks! What on earth shall I do tomorrow?! Oh yes, a Tesco presence on other smart-phone operating systems to come, especially now I've fallen back in love with my Nexus One again after its upgrade to Android 2.2. Anyway...

One Million Tesco Apps Downloaded

Computer Weekly, one of my favourite reads, has as exceeded even their own excellent forecasting abilities.

In their article Tesco Finder app reaches 1m downloads published yesterday, they reinterpreted my blog entry of Friday which spoke of the number of Tesco Finder requests reaching one million, rather than app downloads reaching one million.

Given that Tesco Groceries for iPhone is about to launch, I thought I'd compile the actual total count of downloads of all the other mobile apps we have out there on iPhone, Blackbery and Nokia stores.

We have six currently which are (in order of launch) Tesco Finder for iPhone/iPod Touch, Tesco Wine Finder for iPhone, Tesco Clubcard for iPhone/iPod Touch, Blackberry Clubcard, Nokia Clubcard, and Nokia Groceries.

Colleagues are used to my generally happy demeanour but even they weren't quite ready for the"OHHHH...YEESSSSS!!!!!" and waving of hands that came from somewhere within me.

You see, appearing on the screen was a number. It said:

1,081,555

One million downloads. One million Tesco apps in the hands of our customers. And that's before Tesco Groceries for iPhone has launched.

Er, wow!
(and thanks for the heads-up, CW!)

Nokia app feedback (and time for a commercial break)

Well now it's been quite a week.

The Tesco Groceries app for Nokia appeared on the OVI store and now we have several thousand customers enjoying shopping on their mobile.

What's really nice is that they are using the app as we hoped - most are adding to basket "little and often" throughout this last week, according to the evidence from our anonymised internal log files.

Nokia are so delighted that they've added us to a 30-second TV commercial promoting apps on the OVI store. They've sent me the complete TV commercial schedule but the best thing to do is look out for it at the following dates and times in August (ITV1 region and exact time the commercial is actually transmitted):

• Fri 13 (tonight) at 8:58pm after Coronation Street in London (only).
• Sat 14 during Magic Numbers on ITV1 (8:50pm London, 8:45pm MidWest and Scotland, 8:15pm North and SouthWest).
• Sat 14 during The Simpsons on Sky1 at 8:10pm
• Sunday 15 during Alan Carr: Chatty Man on Channel 4 at 10:15pm (nationwide).
• Sat 21 during X-Factor on ITV1 (8:45pm London, 7:45pm SouthEast, MidWest and Scotland, 8:30pm North). Yes.... X-Factor is starting up again.. must be nearly Christmas....!

The commercial is also showing on ITV2, Living, MTV and E4 here-and-there until the end of August.

Our PR agency Komodo PR has done a great job getting the word out in to the right corners so well done to Adrian and his crack team of wordsmiths, and of course our own Jessica in Marketing too. (Yes I know: the 2,500 of you who follow this blog have been in the loop all along).

I'm taking a few days out to go mountain-biking in the South Downs and hurling myself into the waters around Pevensey Bay in East Sussex. The hubby and I have just bought a caravan off eBay and we're taking it down to the seaside - in the past, guest houses have become upset about two muddy blokes with their two muddy bikes and a happy but super-muddy dog - a second-hand caravan is the perfect solution.

I don't care if it rains - the joy of being splashed and muddy will be a nice break from the tech... for a short time anyway. Besides, if I need a quick fix it's a short trip to Brighton and to Ribot HQ to say hi to the people there polishing up our forthcoming iPhone grocery app.

Here are links to mentions of the app we have spotted (thanks to Komodo for this list):

Supermarket.co.uk

http://www.supermarket.co.uk/news/2010/Aug/tesco-goes-mobile-with-launch-of-first-grocery-shopping-app-97000837.html


Apple Products Rock

http://www.appleproductsrock.com/31500/tesco-mobile-strategy-focuses-on-nokia-not-iphone/


Computing

http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2267834/tesco-admits-nokia-focus-mobile


Pocket-lint

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/34837/tesco-shopping-app-ovi-store


Nok Nok

http://noknok.tv/2010/08/12/ovi-store-app-tesco-groceries-review/


Recombu

http://recombu.com/apps/nokia-picks-up-tesco-grocery-app-for-ovi_M12156.html


Management Consultancy

http://www.managementconsultancy.co.uk/computing/news/2267834/tesco-admits-nokia-focus-mobile


Ribot’s Website

http://ribot.co.uk/2010/ribot-and-tesco-release-mobile-shopping-app-for-nokia/


Amazing Gadgets

http://www.amazingadgets.com/Gadgets/latest-mobile-news/news-tesco-grocery-app-hits-nokia-ovi-store.php


Money Highstreet.com

http://www.moneyhighstreet.com/mobile-phone-news/tesco-launching-a-transactional-mobile-groceryapp/


Digital Times

http://www.digitaltimes.ie/2010/08/tesco-launches-first-transactional-app-on-ovi/


Retail Moves

http://www.retailmoves.com/news/article733.aspx


Perishable News

http://www.perishablenews.com/index.php?article=0008651


Eponymous Pickle

http://eponymouspickle.blogspot.com/2010/08/tesco-mobile-shopping-app.html


Hughes Rey Blog

http://huguesrey.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/tesco-brings-mobile-shopping-into-the-mainstream-news-marketing-week/


Phones Forum.com

http://www.phoneforums.org/news/122304-tesco-launches-transactional-phone-app-retailmoves.html


NMA

http://www.nma.co.uk/opinion/does-tesco-grocery-mean-m-commerce-is-now-mainstream?/3016747.article


Marketing Week

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/sectors/retail/tesco-brings-mobile-shopping-into-the-mainstream/3016615.article


Retail Week

http://www.retail-week.com/technology/tesco-launches-first-transactional-mobile-app/5015903.article    


V3.co.uk

http://www.v3.co.uk/computing/news/2267701/tesco-launches-nokia-app


Computing.co.uk

http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2267701/tesco-launches-nokia-app


Yahoo News

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/16/20100805/ttc-tesco-launches-nokia-application-6315470.html


GoMoNews.co.uk

http://www.gomonews.com/tesco-snubs-iphone-with-mobile-commerce-application/


TechITNews.com

http://www.techitnews.com/article-feed/tesco-launches-nokia-application/


Just Food

http://www.just-food.com/news/tesco-develops-mobile-shopping-app_id112008.aspx


Mobile Metering

http://www.mobilemetering.com/?p=8470


App Sensei

http://appsensei.com/?tag=tesco-grocery


Regator

http://regator.com/p/244064127/tesco_takes_its_grocery_app_mobile/


3G.co.uk

http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/August2010/tesco-launches-mobile-shopping-app.html


Wikio.co.uk

http://www.wikio.co.uk/economy/retail/tesco


bmob.co.uk
http://www.bmob.co.uk/2010/08/05/tesco-start-their-push-for-m-commerce-on-ovi/


Naturalsignature.com

http://naturalsignature.com/wordpress-themes/tesco-launches-mobile-shopping-app-3g-press-release.html


Dominic Fallows

http://dominicfallows.co.uk/2010/08/05/tesco-launches-nokia-application/


Programmeable Web

http://blog.programmableweb.com/2010/08/05/tesco-takes-its-grocery-app-mobile/


IPL Extra

http://iplextra.indiatimes.com/article/0etz2ps3ST377?q=iPhone