Tesco & Paperchase

Acquiring Paperchase is a great strategic move by Tesco. Whilst the fact this purchase doesn’t include Paperchase’s 106 UK&I stores is bad news for the high street, this makes perfect sense for the supermarket.

Supermarket store range dynamics are changing fast, with evolving consumer habits like subscriptions, click & collect and home delivery diminishing the need to visit physical stores for your weekly shop. To balance these changes and encourage physical footfall, store ranges have shrunk to free up space for new categories and experiences like key cutters, beauticians, and coffee shops, which give shoppers a new reason to return in person.

The choice to buy Paperchase further answers this challenge – being a category that is largely unaffected by the digital shift. This is because consumers often buy greetings cards and other gifting products on the day or the day before they’re needed, not leaving much time for online shipping. Also, the customer wants to touch and feel (and read) before purchasing stationary or gifting items. This creates a great opportunity for Tesco to deploy a ‘store in a store’ concept to keep the brand alive, drive footfall and offer new value to consumers.