Tesco takes on rivals with its latest price promotion strategy

Tesco is launching ‘Price Promise’, its biggest price promotion scheme after its first profit fall in 20 years. The price promotion scheme will compare Britain’s biggest grocer’s prices with those of Asda, Morrisons, and Sainsbury’s. Tesco will offer the automatic price comparison coupons from today which will enable customers to benefit from money-off coupons worth up to £10 if they could have bought their shopping for less at a rival.

The ‘Price Promise’ offering marks Tesco’s latest attempt at intensifying competition with rivals such as Sainsbury’s which has its own Brand Match scheme which compares prices on branded items with its competitors. Tesco said customers would receive their coupons after every purchase and that those using its online service would receive the money-off voucher by email.

Every time they shop at Tesco, customers would receive a maximum of £10 in coupons but must purchase more than 10 different products to be eligible to receive them. The company, which collects about one in every £7 spent on the British high street, has launched a £1bn turnaround plan for its home market. Tesco’s market share was marred by the recent horse meat scandal which led to the recall of its frozen foods.

The latest price promotion scheme is Tesco’s first big price offer since it launched “big price drop” in 2011. That £500m promotion, dubbed the “big price flop” by analysts, was cited by some as one of the factors that led to Tesco’s first profits warning in two decades last January and a subsequent fall in six-monthly profits in Britain of more than 12%.