Tesco could use Clubcard data to warn customers when their shopping baskets are too unhealthy
It is every shopper’s nightmare - to have their less-than-perfect food and drink buying habits pointed out to them by an app.
Now, the chief executive of supermarket giant Tesco has claimed it could use customers’ Clubcard data to warn them when their baskets are becoming unhealthy.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdKen Murphy said artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to monitor how customers were shopping to help “nudge” them into healthier choices.
He said the technology could point out to customers when they have exceeded their daily recommended salt limits and suggest healthier alternatives.
Speaking at the FT Future of Retail Conference, he said: “I can see it nudging you over time, saying: ‘I’ve noticed over time in your shopping basket that your sodium salt content is 250 per cent of your daily recommended allowance. I would recommend you substitute this, this and this.’”
He said: “It can help to bring your shopping bill down, reduce waste and improve the outcome and the power of that Clubcard,” adding that AI “will completely revolutionise how customers interact with retailers”.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThis could also mean telling customers they should wait a week to stock up on products if Tesco had an offer coming up that could make their shop cheaper.


Mr Murphy said the aim was for customers to feel that “Clubcard is literally doing their job for them and making their lives easier”.
He said this was “very simple stuff” which could “really improve people’s daily lives”.
Tesco is Britain’s largest supermarket, and more than 22 million households are currently signed up to its Clubcard scheme, which launched in 1995 and gives customers access to lower prices.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHenry Dimbleby, who led the Government’s existing national food strategy, said in a BBC radio interview: “It’s great to hear that there’s recognition that if we don’t get a grip on food-related ill health it’s going to destroy our health, the NHS and the economy.
“But he (Ken Murphy) isn’t going to be able to do it on his own.
“During the food strategy we talked to the CEO of a supermarket who’d tried to do a similar thing in five stores and they had succeeded in improving the baskets of food that their customers were buying. But all five stores lost profitability, so they couldn’t roll it out.”
Asked if he thought customers would welcome their data being looked at in this way, Mr Dimbleby said: “Their data is being looked at in this way whether they like it or not.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“They’re constantly being marketed to, they’re constantly having often – whether it’s online, whether it’s on social media – unhelpful and destructive attempts to change their behaviour.
“And the work we did suggested that people are quite up for being helped to be healthier.”
Professor Susan Michie, director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London, added: “This in general is very good in terms of people’s health, because, especially things like salt content, people often have no idea.
“However, it’s really important that people be told what technology is being used in what way and for what purposes. So transparency’s really important.”
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdA Tesco spokesman said it does not “sell or share any individual customer data and we take our responsibilities regarding the use of customer data extremely seriously”.
It stressed it was not currently looking at rolling out a “nudge” policy.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.