Supermarket giant Tesco has revealed that it is set to put an end to its Tesco Direct website, leaving hundreds of jobs hanging in the balance.

The site, which offers safe shopping online across a range of product categories in the UK, has been a loss-making venture for the firm, so it is unsurprising that it has taken the decision to close it down altogether.

Tesco Direct had originally been positioned as a rival to Amazon, as it focused on selling electronics, fashion items, home ware and other goods not related to groceries.

The good news for customers is that while the site is being terminated, the products it sold will now shift across to the main Tesco.com platform, which should make it simpler to order a wide variety of items via safe shopping online.

Company spokesperson, Charles Wilson, explained that although choosing to close Tesco Direct had been tough, it was a move that would make it easier for the company to thrive in the online market going forwards.

He also said that it made sense to give customers the opportunity to buy groceries and non-food goods from a single platform, rather than dividing its product offerings across two distinct sites, as it had done in the past. This proves that a holistic approach to e-commerce is better than a fragmented one.

When Tesco Direct comes to the end of the line on the 9th of July, it will not only disappear from the internet altogether, but will also result in the closure of the fulfilment facility from which many of the orders placed on the site were distributed.

Tesco has not confirmed how many jobs will be lost, but it is estimated that around 500 employees could face redundancy as a result of this decision, according to the Evening Standard.