Dunelm today reported online sales up by more than a quarter, but at the same time, store sales fell.
The homewares trader, a Top100 retailer in IRUK Top500 research, said online sales for home delivery had reached £17.9m over the third quarter of the financial year, the 13 weeks to April 2. That’s 27.6% up on the same period last year.
Over that period, total revenue grew by 5.9% to £229.0m. Sales grew by 1.1% on a like-for-like basis, which strips out the effect of store openings and closures. Like-for-like store sales reached £187m, down by 0.8% on the last year.
The retailer said store footfall had been strong over the winter sale period, with higher conversion and transaction rates than the year before. One new superstore was opened during the third quarter, while several medium sized stores were refitted. Dunelm now trades from 152 superstores, and expects to open a further five next year.
John Browett, chief executive, said the retailer was confident of delivering on full-year expectations.
“We continue to work hard on delivering our key projects across the business and remain excited about substantially improving the business for our customers, both in store and online, over the medium term, and developing Dunelm into a truly national homewares brand,” he said.
The figures show a continuing trend. In the first half of its financial year, online sales grew by 24.4%, and overall sales by 10.3%. Then Dunelm said that the retailer intended to work towards a total store estate of 200 to fit its mission in a “post-internet age”.
