Tesco pushes virtual clothes in small London stores

The partnership will make the F&F collection available to buy in central London stores, which do not have the floor space to display the clothes, for the first time.

F&F clothing designs will appear in the windows of the Covent Garden, Dean Street and Tooley Street stores, allowing passers-by to purchase the clothes directly from their smartphones.

Passers-by who have the Aurasma app can point their mobile at one of the windows to view a virtual showcase of the F&F range on their device.

Viewers can then tap to purchase the item on display.

Emily Shamma, Tesco clothing online director, said: "Our smaller central London stores aren't big enough to have clothing ranges, so this is a great opportunity to help us to reach new customers.

The launch of the partnership comes at a difficult time for Autonomy, the company behind Aurasma.

Mike Lynch, Autonomy founder and chief executive, has resigned from the company amid confirmation that Hewlett-Packard, which bought Autonomy in October, would be cutting 27,000 jobs. 

Follow Matthew Chapman at @mattchapmanUK

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk