He wear no shoeshine he got toe-jam football
He got monkey finger he shoot coca-cola
He say I know you, you know me
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free
Come together right now over me
Tesco’s new API reminded me of these lyrics from “Come Together” by the Beatles, mostly because of their future event, TJAM, where developers get their grubby mitts on Tesco’s new API.
Tesco is trialling an API which will allow third-party developers to hook into the supermarket’s databases to develop new ways of selling Tesco merchandise. Developers will be able to join an affiliate scheme and take a commision on sales for the lifetime of the applications they generate.
In an email to the 150 developers who have already registered to try out Tesco.com’s API, Nick Lansley, Tesco’s head of R&D, said “A great new Tesco.com Grocery API is coming which will offer extended facilities and faster performance, enable you to obtain an affiliate income from the customers who use your application, and find out what customers are asking for at our T-Jam event coming soon.”
T-Jam is an innovation day, to be held in London on 5 August, which will allow invited developers to work with other Tesco customers and creative thinkers to drive ideas and innovation, and then go on to play a part in developing those ideas and making them a success.
Anyone interested in attending T-Jam can find out more about how to get an invitation here.
I predict that there’ll be twenty apps allowing you to shop from your iPhone, five from your Android phone and two from your S60.
Would that be a bad thing? I found Tesco Online Shopping to be a curious, invasive process which involved me emptying boxes of groceries speedily so that the delivery guy could just take them and go. I wasn’t sure about the protocol really.
There’s no denying that Tesco Online Shopping seems to be a hit. This API, in including not only buying and checkout facilities but also nutritional information, product favourites and deals in a RESTful web service – not to mention commission.
Tie it into your ‘diet app’ and automatically order foods which are recommended while blocking those which are not. Provide a version of the Tesco store which only shows foods for the gluten-intolerant or observing cultural rituals. Even just being able to automate the delivery of staples from a good, easy to use interface might be enough; for example, a parent might want to make sure that her teenagers are well stocked while she’s off on holiday. There’s no reason why this couldn’t be built into a barcode scanner app so you can order the same pasta meal you just enjoyed and schedule it for delivery next week for Pasta Night!
The most important thing is start the conversation. It’s no longer who will be first to release an API for their consumer good service but rather why hasn’t Company X released an API for their service?