Tesco nears £200m online Xmas sales

Leading UK grocer Tesco grew sales at its online businesses Tesco.com and Tesco Direct by 24 per cent over the six Christmas-shopping weeks up to 5 January 2008.

The retailer said revenues from this channel reached £190m with more than two million orders delivered in the six-week period.

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Sales of MP3 players, digital cameras and laptops were particularly strong.

Growth in online sales outstripped total UK sales growth for the period, which increased by 3.1 per cent in like-for-like sales, excluding petrol.

Although online sales growth was small in comparison to other retailers which have been quoting figures in the region of 40 to 50 per cent, the strong showing in consumer electronics categories bucks the trend set by retailer DSGi, which said last week sales in laptops across all channels was poor.

Tesco has been widely recognised for its progressive approach to the way it harnesses technology to improve retail performance, although the departure of its CIO Colin Cobain announced in November, has raised questions about how its technology strategy will change in the future.