In 2023, over 200,000 new pay-monthly customers joined the helpful network, fuelled by a 12% growth in pay-monthly market share and, with less customers leaving (0.5pp improvement in its industry leading* churn rate), Tesco Mobile strengthened its position as the UK’s largest Mobile Virtual Network Operator, with more than 5.5 million customers. This impressive growth is supported by a sophisticated omnichannel retail strategy that spans physical, digital, and telesales, giving it a level of reach that surpasses other MVNOs.
Technology is core to this strategy. In 2019, under the leadership of Tesco Mobile’s newly-appointed CTO Sally Marriott, the company embarked upon an ambitious process of digital transformation that touched upon every element of the business’ operations.
Tesco Mobile’s goals were to improve the overall customer experience, drive efficiencies across the business, increase developer and operational agility, improve its already-formidable customer engagement and retention numbers, and to grow its digital sales channels.
To achieve this, it embraced an agile philosophy of continuous improvement and aggressively overhauled its tech stack, including the systems used to facilitate sales online, in Phone Shops, and over the phone. Any solution had to adopt modern development practices, with a heavy emphasis on API-centricity and composable architecture, and it had to win the support of both employees and company leadership.
In 2020, it partnered with SQLI and Adobe to create a modern, scalable, and adaptable eCommerce platform that would function across each of its customer touchpoints.
Challenge: ageing platform
“When I came into the business, it became apparent we didn’t have the right level of investment and focus on our technology platforms,” said Sally. “We knew we needed to make our technology stack fit the needs of the future, and this included our eCommerce system.”
Previously, Tesco Mobile relied on an in-house eCommerce platform that, despite having shepherded the company through its early growth years, had begun to show its age. It wasn’t well-optimised for mobile, introducing new features was both time-consuming and costly, and customer journeys were “clunky”, explained Sally.
Unsurprisingly, customer experience was key to Tesco Mobile’s digital transformation ambitions. This has long been a top priority for the company, which was ranked as the top mobile brand in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index earlier this year. But it wasn’t the only concern.
“Our legacy platform had evolved over the years, and it was different in every channel,” explained Neil Faid, Technology Lead for Acquisition at Tesco Mobile. “We had a different experience for retail, a different experience online, and a different experience for our telesales workers. Our aspiration was to create a single platform that would serve our customers and colleagues across all channels.”
Sally’s first priority was to ‘sell’ the transformation vision to other members of Tesco Mobile’s leadership team and convincing them that the investment was worthwhile.
“We had to convince other groups through the work we did and our discussion on strategy. We made the case that we weren’t just solving a technology problem, but also a business problem,” said Sally.
Very quickly, the leadership team saw beyond the technological overhaul and the potential for a stronger, more agile and resilient business.
Tesco Mobile began its search for a partner that could help facilitate the creation of a unified platform. It consulted with Gartner, which created a shortlist of potential vendors, which included SQLI and Adobe.
Sally said: “We brought four companies in to pitch and asked each to outline how they would integrate and develop the solution that we needed to take the business forward. We didn’t have the team and capacity to execute this ourselves.
“One of the things that we liked about SQLI and Adobe was they came with a vision, and they told us how they would implement it,” added Neil. “It felt like a partnership.”
One of the things that we liked about SQLI and Adobe was they came with a vision, and they told us how they would implement it. It felt like a partnership.
Approach: an omnichannel solution
SQLI proposed a solution built upon the established and battle-tested Adobe Commerce platform, along with Adobe Experience Manager, which acts as the customer front-end, and Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target.
The arrival of Adobe Commerce coincided with a broader technological shift within Tesco Mobile, with the company adopting an API-centric strategy that allows for smoother integrations and the rapid expansion of its capabilities. Today, the company has over thirty different systems integrated into the platform via its API gateway, which range from stock management platforms through to its payment gateway.
Tesco Mobile’s partnership with SQLI began in the earliest months of the Covid-19 lockdown. Although the shift to remote working was unfamiliar for many in Tesco Mobile and SQLI, it didn’t stop the project from moving forward, with the solution debuting over several months in mid-2021.
For Tesco Mobile, this was perfect timing, as it provided plenty of time to identify and solve any potential issues before the release of the new iPhone and the busy Black Friday season and Clubcard Prices launch.
“Our plan was to launch before peak season, allowing time to resolve any major issues. We started rolling out the new platform in September 2021, using a dual running approach with both old and new sites. This was followed by the in-store launch in April 2022 and the telesales channel launch in summer 2022,” said Sally.
SQLI’s breakneck development pace allowed Tesco Mobile valuable time to familiarise its customer service and sales representatives with the platform, and to obtain the feedback of those frontline workers who would rely on it.
This lead time was important to Tesco Mobile, which understood that early exposure to the new system would minimise any operational challenges during the first few weeks.
“We started doing user acceptance testing (UAT) from an early stage, bringing in colleagues from fourteen stores to ‘play’ with the platform. From that, we ring-fenced four stores to use the platform and provide feedback,” said Sally.
“We spoke to them about why we were building the platform, and the benefits it provided. We wanted to get them behind it,” she added.
The response was hugely positive. “I feel a massive sense of pride with this platform and transformation. Our Slough store were among the first to use our platform. It’s where the first sale was processed, and I was on-site to help with the UAT testing,” said Neil.
“I went back a few weeks later, just doing a normal shop, and one of the workers recognised me. He was full of praise. If you work in technology, you know how uncommon that is. Normally, people tend to have negative feedback — they’ll share the things they didn’t like, or want you to change.
“Single sign-on has transformed our in-store team’s workflow. They no longer have to juggle multiple logins, and the user-friendly interface has made their tasks much smoother and more efficient. It helps serve our customers better,” said Neil.
We want to get the most out of our eCommerce. There still feels like there’s a lot of untapped potential, and we’re working closely with SQLI and Adobe to make sure we’re really maximising the functionality of our software.
Results
Since the introduction of the new eCommerce solution, Tesco Mobile has grown its online sales channel from less than 20 per cent of sales prior to the transformation to more than 38 per cent.
From the beginning, Tesco Mobile's goals were to improve the overall customer experience, boost customer engagement and retention, and drive efficiencies across the business. Roughly three years later, it has achieved its objectives.
Online conversions have also increased in the same period - increasing by over 7 per cent since the start of the project to the end of 2023. The company continues to accelerate its impressive year-on-year growth, with annual revenues up by 12 per cent in 2023.
With a new eCommerce platform geared for future growth, Tesco Mobile is looking forward to the years ahead.
“We want to get the most out of our eCommerce. There still feels like there’s a lot of untapped potential, and we’re working closely with SQLI and Adobe to make sure we’re really maximising the functionality of our software,” said Sally.
“A key part of our strategy is being digital first, and this platform will play a pivotal role in enhancing and refining our capabilities, as well as improving our customer journeys.”
