The definitive Index cataloguing the triumphs, challenges and progress of the 500 most significant retailers in the UK. With a focus on “RetailCraft”, the way a retailer trades, manages, grows and connects with customers, the IRUK 500 assesses retailers across six dimensions of performance. Via this hub you can access the annual report, the performance dimensions, news and analysis as well as the new monthly indices launching in March 2016. Let us know your thoughts on research@internetretailing.net
New Look this week reported a downturn in its overall sales despite healthy growth online as shoppers demand to “buy now, wear now”. The fast fashion retailer reported sales of £1.4bn in the year to March 25, 2.4% down on the same time last year. It said its own brand (more…)
Boohoo.com has unveiled plans to build a new automated warehouse that will give it the capacity to deliver sales of £3bn a year. The fast fashion retailer, a Top150 trader in IRUK Top500 research, plans to spend £150m over the next three years to build a 600,000 sq ft automated (more…)
Value footwear retailer Shoe Zone said mobile sales were making an important contribution to its multichannel strategy as it reported half-year revenues of £72.9m in the six months to April 1, down by 2.3% on the same time last year. Pre-tax profits of £0.3m were down by 84% from £1.9m (more…)
AO World today reported full-year results, with revenues of £701.2m in the year to March 31, 17% up on the previous year, and pre-tax losses of £7m, up from a loss of £6.7m last time. Most of its turnover came from the UK – at £629.7m this was 12.7% up (more…)
Marks & Spencer today reported growing full-year sales but said profits had been hit by investment in transformation, which includes its plans to “reshape and improve its UK store estate for a multichannel world”. Group revenue reached £10.6bn in the 52 weeks to April 1, 2.2% ahead of the same (more…)
Pets at Home today reported a 53% leap in ecommerce sales during its latest financial year. At the same time, overall revenues reached £834.2m in the 52 weeks to March 30 2017, up by 7.2% compared with the same period last year. Revenue from product sales reached £716.7m, 2.9% up (more…)
Quiz is to sell its fast fashion womenswear via Zalando in a move that makes the German platform its biggest international online partner to date. The omnichannel brand says the move will help it to expand its international presence and its online offering. Quiz will sell a core selection of (more…)
In an era when many companies and individuals sell goods via the web, the question of what constitutes a retailer is surprisingly complex. It’s not enough in itself to have a website or operate a store. In arriving at our definition of a retailer, we have considered the intent, capabilities, and (more…)
An ecommerce sales boost of 35% has helped SuperGroup, owner of the Superdry brand, to a 27.2% rise in sales in its latest financial year. Retail sales rose by 12.7% in the year to April 29, on a like-for-like basis that strips out the effect of store openings and closures. (more…)
Gear4Music plans to become a leading online retailer of musical instruments and music equipment around the world from its headquarters in York, where it also has a showroom and distribution centre. Today the company, a Top150 retailer in IRUK Top500 research, reported sales of £56.1m in the year to February (more…)
Supermarkets Sainsbury’s and Morrisons had news on their multichannel strategies as they reported to investors this week. Here are the highlights. The Sainsbury’s figures and strategy Sainsbury’s this week reported on a financial year in which it bought Argos , and its revenue figures rose accordingly. Group sales, excluding VAT (more…)
Next and Missguided both had figures out this week. We ran a multichannel lens over the two fashion retailers’ statements. The Missguided update Missguided, founded in 2009 by Nitin Passi, reported revenues of £206m in the year to March 2017, a 75% rise on the same time last year, and (more…)
In full-year results out this week, fashion pureplay Boohoo.com unveiled fast growth in both sales (£294.6m in the year to February 28, +51% on last year) and pre-tax profits (£30.9m, +97%). We took a look at the strategies driving that success. Joint chief executives Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane said: (more…)
Boden is moving onto the high street, via womenswear concessions in John Lewis stores. The first five openings, set to launch in the autumn, represent a major expansion for the online retailer’s physical presence. It curently trades from one Boden store in Hangar Lane, London. More concessions are then planned (more…)
The Body Shop has launched a mobile-first ecommerce platform as part of a three-year £10m transformation project that aims to see 20% of sales come from ecommerce. The site comes in response to the fact that 52% of the retailer’s online traffic is now via smartphones, and 11% via tablet (more…)
Most brand websites enjoy top placement in results for a Google search of their own name, suggests a new Top500 analysis of google.co.uk results for 50 of the largest UK brands. The analysed brands are both wholesalers of their labelled products and, through their retail operations, competitors with their wholesale (more…)
House of Fraser has launched a £25m upgrade of its ecommerce platform that it says will give it the capacity to double its online sales while developing a new relationship with its customers. Work on the platform started this month and is designed to improve the customer online experience while (more…)
The InternetRetailing Australia Top250, the newest report in our stable of objective retail performance analyses, will be released later this year. Drawing on years of experience in weighing performance in the European retail space, RetailX will produce the first ever retail performance index of Australian retailers. The IRAU Top250 Footprint (more…)
JD Sports today reported full-year revenue of £2.4bn in the year to January 28, 31% up on a year earlier, while pre-tax profits, before one-off costs, of £244.8m, were 56% up on the previous year. Pre-tax profits after exceptional items were 81% up on last time. That takes profits at (more…)
Retail sales slowed both online and offline in March, British Retail Consortium figures out today suggest. Ecommerce sales of non-food products grew by 6.6% in March, the BRC-KPMG Online Retail Sales Monitor for March 2017 suggests. That’s the lowest growth since August 2016, and falls below the three-month average of (more…)
