After successfully introducing a number of digital technologies to the retail space, supermarket giant Tesco is reportedly cutting costs from its IT budget.

Until now Tesco hasn’t been shy in backing digital technology investments. Online grocery shopping for home delivery, augmented reality mirrors in-store, its own 7in tablet, a data-driven loyalty card scheme – the Clubcard, a digital wallet, a magazine app, click and collect and scan as you shop, to name a few.

However, earlier this year Tesco saw a large drop in profits that it put down to the re-shift in focus from in-store to online. While it was seeing strong UK growth in online shopping, it saw an overall fall in profit.

While this might suggest that Tesco is thinking of moving its concentration back to it bricks and mortar stores, this doesn’t appear to be the case as the retailer also plans to cut costs by slowing the roll out of its refurbished stores.

The announcement that Tesco plans to reduce its IT spend came after the retailer reduced its profit forecast for 2014/15 from £2.8bn to £2.4bn. “The combination of challenging trading conditions and ongoing investment in our customer offer has continued to impact the expected financial performance of the group,” said Tesco’s trading statement.

Source: Computer Weekly