Following the news that Tesco’s app and website were compromised over the weekend after a hacking attempt;

Jemima Walker, Analyst on the Thematic Research team at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view:

“Tesco’s app and website outage should be a warning to all retail stores to get to grips with cybersecurity as the industry moves towards digitalization.

“The hacking attempt of the UK’s largest food and grocery retailer shows how important cybersecurity is to the future of retail, not just online channels, as customers access Tesco’s new checkout-free store in Holborn via a mobile app.

“While retailers using checkout-free technology will face disruption from cyber attacks, customer data is also at risk. Therefore, retailers looking to get involved in the checkout-free race need to ensure their cybersecurity standards are high enough. Simply implementing the technology isn’t enough.

“As Tesco is already benefiting from the popularity of online shopping, and trialling an on-demand service, the GetGo store will allow it to compete with Amazon’s Go stores in the UK food and grocery retail market – set to reach £196bn by 2025, according to GlobalData forecasts.”