How Tesco Plans to Cut Queues & Boost Efficiency with a Digital System

In the changing dynamics of UK retail, Tesco is still at the forefront of innovation. With thousands of stores and millions of customers a day, long queues in-store are still a concern. As your project manager, I would recommend implementing a Digital Queue Management System (DQMS) to respond to this challenge. This forward-thinking project aims to enhance customer satisfaction, reduce waiting times and improve operational flow. The detailed Project Initiation Document (PID) below provides a starting point for project approvals, management, and assessing project success.

Project Definition

Tesco has continued to be the number one supermarket in the UK largely through continuous innovation and putting customers first. However, one of the complaints customers frequently had was long checkout lines even during peak shopping times. The proposed Digital Queue Management System (DQMS) will provide the customer the opportunity to queue virtually through the Tesco mobile app or in-store kiosks.

The objective of this project is to decrease average queue times by 40% while enhancing the overall shopping experience in store. This project will also look to integrate the DQMS with the Tesco Clubcard scheme so that customers waiting for checkout will receive specific updates about their Clubcard points. The roll-out scope will include a pilot in 200 large-format Tesco stores in high-footfall locations around the UK (excludes Tesco Express and One Stop during Phase 1.

Constraints for this project include a budget of £2.5 million and a six-month period. The expectation is that customers are open to using a digital ticketing system and that Tesco's infrastructure and app can support the integration with DQMS. The governance for the project will be the Board of Directors made up of the Tesco IT director, store operations manager and customer experience subject matter expert. This governance is critical to the overall project delivery and to comply with company standards and corporate goals.

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Project Approach

The project will use an Agile Scrum approach that allows for a high degree of flexibility and continuous feedback. This is well suited to the customer-focused approach of the project and also the need to have continual user-based adjustment based on usability testing.

The project lifecycle will commence with a discovery phase with four full development sprints. Once development is complete, the system will be piloted in ten stores. Following the pilot feedback, a refined rollout will take place across the other remaining 190 stores. Tesco will engage a UK software vendor on a fixed-price contract, thus guaranteeing a fixed fee for the management of design, development, and the integration process.

This position is supported by research by Gartner and McKinsey into digital queue systems, which, in terms of pre-implementation metrics, found that satisfaction levels improved by up to 60%, and they reduced frontline pressure by 25%. Also, the method ensures high quality is achieved, with the deliverable of the effort produced and deployed in a rapid manner.

Business Case

Several options were explored to address the queuing issue. Options considered included hiring more people, more checkout counters, or ultimately, a digital option. Hiring more staff would entail ongoing expenses, and limitations on how many counters the store could feasibly add would be an obstacle for the other option. However, the DQMS would not only be more cost-effective but also scalable and align with Tesco's digital transformation.

The overall project cost was estimated at £2.5 million, including app development, training, deployment and customer messaging. The potential benefits could include increased customer retention, higher customer and store feedback scores, and better store traffic flow. Only a small number of customers may take some time to embrace the digital systems; however, this is considered a short-term disbenefit.

Risks included could involve technical glitches or hiccups, data privacy issues and lower than anticipated adoption rates; however, I believe that given good planning, piloting and a thorough feedback loop, risks could be mitigated. The investment is expected to break even in 12 months, given the reduced staff load, efficiency of the store and improved customer loyalty.

Project Management Team Structure

A project team, dedicated to this project, will be formed. The roles will be a project manager (responsible for overall project coordination), interim technical lead (responsible for the development and integration of the project), store manager (responsible for executing project activities and coordinating project staff), and customer experience officer (responsible for gathering feedback and testing usability of project outputs).

Each component of the project team will have a very clear role and responsibilities that will be outlined in a RACI matrix. This matrix will document who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed during each task associated with the project, eliminating confusion if there is more than one party responsible for performing a specific project task.

Project Timeline

The entire project is scheduled for completion over six months.The first two weeks will be focused on planning and collecting requirements. Then we will have eight weeks of development time with four sprints. We have also allocated two weeks to complete the pilot testing to gather feedback and make improvements if necessary.

The rollout across 200 stores will take about six weeks. We will be utilising a Gantt chart to manage timings, dependencies & task sequencing and for tracking purposes. The Gantt Chart will be a helpful visual aid for the team (a reference point) that will show if the team is on track, keep everyone accountable and help manage time in case of a delay.

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Project Controls

We will need to control the project as needed to ensure executions are completed as planned. We will use decision gates to prevent the project from deviating away from the plan, which will be placed after completing the planning phase, after development and after the pilot test. The decision gates will require board approval to progress to the next phase/stage.

Progress will be tracked using weekly reports, team dashboards and status meetings. Any issues/bugs would be tracked in JIRA with suitable resolutions to the team responsible. A Lessons Learnt phase session will be held after the full rollout to document what had gone well and what can be improved for future digital projects at Tesco.

Conclusion

Tesco’s proposed Digital Queue Management System presents a practical and impactful solution to one of its most persistent challenges—long customer wait times. It reflects Tesco’s commitment to improving the in-store experience and supporting its broader digital transformation goals.

With a clear structure, strong business case, and efficient planning, this project sets the stage for meaningful change. Done right, Tesco can revolutionise in-store shopping across the UK.

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