Domino’s today predicted that mobile would become its leading sales channel in 2015. Online sales now account for almost 70% of Domino’s UK pizza sales – with almost 40% of them placed using mobile devices, the takeaway company said as it reported half-year results.
Online sales at Domino’s Pizza Group grew by 30.6% to £204.7m in the 26 weeks to June 29, with ecommerce accounting for 69.7% of UK delivered sales. That’s up from 63.3% at the same time last year. Of its UK ecommerce orders, 38.3% came from a mobile device, up from 27.5% at the same time last year.
“We anticipate that mobile will become our most popular ordering channel in 2015,” said chief executive David Wild in his review of the business. He added: “Ecommerce continues to fuel much of our UK growth as we seek to find new ways to make it as easy as possible for customers to order our pizzas.”
Overall, Domino’s, which trades in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Switzerland, reported half-year sales of £375.0m, up by 14.9% on the same time in the previous year. Pre-tax profits grew by 10.1% to £24.5m, up from £22.2m last time. In the UK like-for-like sales grew by 11.3%, in the Irish Republic by 3.2%, in euros. In Switzerland, where sales are denominated in Swiss francs, they grew by 2.9%, but in Germany sales fell by 1.7%, again, in euros.
Wild said the results represented three successive quarters of double-digit like-for-like growth in the UK. “I am especially pleased at the continued success of our e- and m-commerce platforms, showing how customers enjoy and appreciate the benefit of ordering online,” he said. “We are investing further to drive this even harder.”
Such investment will see the company move more marketing budget to digital, with 48% of its media budget spent on digital in the first half. “We are exploiting the trend of second and third screen viewing by consumers who are watching TV whilst interacting with one or two other devices, and won an award for our sponsorship last year of the X Factor App,” said Wild. He said that customers were increasingly influenced by social media, with 15% recently telling a survey that it prompted them to order. Domino’s is therefore planning “novel” campaigns on social media.
A new website, to be live by September, will put the emphasis on photography, communicating deals, easier ordering and payment.
Elsewhere, the company reported 11 new store openings and one closure over the period, to take it to a total of 868 at the half-year end. Some 300 new jobs were created, a figure expected to rise to more than 1,300 by the end of the year as the company opens as many as 50 stores in the full year.
