Finding new oppertunity for Tesco Clubcard
đź’ˇ Introduction
Tesco is a multinational retailer of groceries and daily essentials in the UK, known as its affordability and convenience. It stands as a leading position in the UK for its over 20 million members of Clubcard and an extensive coverage of physical stores, making it the third-largest retailer globally.
🗓️ Timeline
2023.9~2023.10
📍 Role
Reseacher
UX designer
Service designer
🤝 Collaberators
Jiangyue Wu
Shivani Gowaikar
Yiyun Fan
Xiaoyue Lian
Data Collection
Starting with our personal experience of Tesco’s shopping process. Recording the emotions, behaviours and the pain points before, during and after shopping.

Customers are attracted to competitive Clubcard member prices that marked with yellow labels. Although people obtain membership in order to get a cheaper price, when they compare to other retailers like Lidl, ASDA or big competitor Sainsbury’s customers will notice they offer better deals.
This confuses consumers and leads to low loyalty. Some of them only choose Tesco during discounts or due to distance, while others distrust Tesco products because of unsatisfactory qualities.
Business Aspect Investigation
Attempts to analyze Tesco’s business process based on past work experience faced challenges due to a lack of objective evaluations in readily available annual reports, news, and interviews. Our team only could resorted to making assumptions to understand their business service model.

We identified Tesco’s core business philosophy from numerous reports, emphasizing certain keywords that almost represent Tesco and the value they intend to bring to customers.

Interviews
We gathered insights from students about their shopping habits, especially how they weigh price against quality. We then explored emotional responses tied to consumption and identified behaviors that trigger them, helping us clarify key customer goals.

Identifying Opportunities
Tesco has implemented a membership system since 1996, which was a very pioneering strategy at the time. So we began to think: is there any future approach in modern times that is beyond the times, innovative, and no one has thought before?

In the final insights, the team decided on three solution directions
- Make good use of local stores — Tesco has a large number of stores
- Let customers see the value of membership — members currently cannot see the benefits of Clubcard
- Let everything enter people’s lives naturally — People don’t like to have their behavior changed, but we can guide it.

Final outcome

- The vending machine is used to achieve remote ordering, which makes it convenient for companies to set up charging points and customers to purchase items anytime and anywhere. You can even use VR shopping to view the status of goods on the shelves.
- Community-based subscriptions, based on the first point, can be shared with families or co-residents.
Reflection
Since I started working, I rarely discuss with other designers for some personal ideas. Because everyone is on campus, their ideas are wild and unconstrained, and we also work hard to rationalize these ideas. I cherish this opportunity to listen to other people’s ideas and try to strike a balance, and also re-examine my own strengths and weaknesses in teamwork.
Reporting on stage has always been my weakness, let alone speaking in a second language. I would be so anxious that I would feel sick to my stomach. But I am very grateful to my teammates. They rehearsed with me and encouraged me when I got stuck on my words. Give me psychological support with nods and smiles, so that everything can be expressed smoothly.
