Tesco retail online

Tesco will sell clothing online for the first time this month to take advantage of the lucrative back-to-school season. A capsule range of school clothing and accessories will be sold on the retailer's Tesco.com website from July 21 in Scotland and August 4 in the rest of the UK . The initiative will run for six weeks until the start of the school term.

Tesco plans to expand its clothing customer database through affiliate partnerships, which pay a commission to sites that drive traffic onto them. Its Tesco.com/clothing site, which enables visitors to view items online before they buy in-store, has more than 150,000 registered customers.

Keith Chamarette, project director of digital agency WARL Evolution, which helped set up Tesco's clothing website in April 2005. He said: "Until now, the database has grown organically through the site or through in-store promotions. Affiliate programmes should help to drive even more traffic there." Despite the trial, Tesco is unlikely to sell its entire clothing collection online in the near future.