Dunelm says the opening of its new dedicated ecommerce operation in Stoke in partnership with GXO, which opened towards the end of 2021, will support the company’s future growth ambitions through better customer experience, scale and efficiency. Over time it’s planned that the facility will also enable the extension of the Dunelm range of goods available for click and collect, as well as reducing customer lead times.
Nick Wilkinson, chief executive officer, said the company had also progressed the development of its new furniture hub in Daventry. “We relocated one of our in-house home delivery network ‘hubs’ to this site in December 2021 and began accepting in-bound inventory to the main warehouse in January, with the site expected to be fully operational in March,” he said. The facility is designed to enable Dunelm the ability to scale furniture growth, enabling both range expansion and improved customer experience in terms of availability and speed of delivery.
It comes as Dunelm this week reported its interim results for the 26 weeks ended 25 December 2021. The company said it has continued to win market share with its active customer base growing 6.3% to 13 million and reported first half total sales growth of 10.6% (36.0% on a two year basis) to £795.6m and a record profit before tax of £140.8m.
Dunelm said that click and collect has continued to prove popular with customers and drives online and instore sales, with over a third of customers picking up orders also shopping in store on the same trip. Digital sales (which include click and collect and in-store tablet-based sales) are more than five times the size they were five years ago, and more than double what they were in 2019.
The retailer said that digital capabilities are fuelling store sales, with average total sales per store (including click and collect and in-store tablet sales) having grown by c.30% since 2016.
