New Tesco Website Dedicated to Polish Groceries
Tesco in the UK has created a new website dedicated to shoppers wanting Polish products. Having launched a range of Polish foods in ten stores in 2006, the supermarket now carries some 250 products in 500 stores. With just 245 stores in Poland itself, this means that Tesco will sell Polish food in more UK stores to reach the more than a million Poles now living in Britain.
Tesco's Polish food buyer, Kaska Teofilak, said, "The huge demand for Polish delicacies in Britain has overwhelmed us to the extent that we have exceeded our original expectation by tenfold. The rocketing demand means that Polish has become the fastest growing ethnic food range we have ever launched including our Indian and Chinese cuisines, so the launch of a dedicated website for Poles is a logical step forward."
Linked directly to the core www.tesco.com transactional site at www.tesco.com/polski, the new site showcases the retailer's range of Polish specific products. It also includes a store locator showing which ones carry - and will deliver - Polish products. Links to popular websites visited by the Polish community such as search engines and news services are being used to promote the range. For the benefit of Poles in England and their new neighbors who may be learning to love their food, the site is published in Polish and English.
Ms. Teofilak added, "Having a business in Poland has made it easier for us to bring over the most popular food and drink items." By dealing directly with suppliers in Poland, she explained, the huge demand in Britain is creating a boom for the economy over there.
Discussion Questions: Do you see an opportunity for U.S. grocers to open separate websites around ethnicities? Are dedicated, bi-lingual, sites more likely to increase sales than simply highlighting categories?