Domino’s Pizza is now ‘truly an online retailer,’ its chief executive said today, as the company posted fast growth in both ecommerce and m-commerce sales.
Online sales at the pizza delivery business grew by 29.2% to £156.7m in the first half of its financial year, accounting for 63.3% of UK delivered sales. Of these, 27.5% of online orders were taken via a mobile device. That’s up from 17.9% in 2012.
“With the majority of our [UK] business coming via a web and mobile platform, we are now truly an online retailer,” said chief executive Lance Batchelor.
Domino’s said that it expects to see similar movement towards digitalisation in its other markets of Ireland, Germany and Switzerland, and said that the launch of new iPhone and iPad apps over the period had helped to boost mobile sales. Its 12-week football themed sitcom, Domino’s Support Group,streamed via YouTube, had been seen more than a million times. Click-through rates were five times higher than the industry norm, with purchases by people who saw the show 15% higher than previously.
“We are really excited about the prospect of continuing to accelerate our digital business and look forward to the second half where we plan a significant overhaul and update of our main online web ordering platform,” said Batchelor. This, he said in his review, would result in “even better communication with our customers, an ever easier customer journey through the ordering process and greater efficiency at the back end of the online and apps ordering system.”
The update came as Domino’s Pizza Group reported a 13.8% rise in system sales to £326.5m in the 26 weeks to June 30. Pre-tax profits after exceptionals fell to £11.6m from £21.5m at the same time last year. But when the German and Swiss businesses were excluded, pre-tax profits were up by 10.3% to £25.7m from £23.3m last time.
Like-for-like sales grew by 6.4% in the UK and by 6.5% in the Republic of Ireland, while in Germany they were up by 23.8%, and in Switzerland by 7.8%.
Batchelor said the company had now laid the foundations for its “start up” German business, which was now set to expand cautiously using its franchise model. The company said it was turning around the Swiss venture and expected to make a profit in 2014.
Domino’s Pizza currently has 825 stores in its UK, Irish, German and Swiss markets, of which 48 are in the Republic of Ireland, 25 in Germany and 10 in Switzerland.
