Halfords today reported an 8.2% growth in ecommerce sales, and said that 91% of items ordered online were now collected in store.
The figure comes as the automotive-to-cycling equipment retailer reported sales up by 3.6% in the 13 weeks to July 3, compared to the same time last year. Retail sales rose by 3.4%, while autocentre revenue was up by 5%. Like-for-like retail sales were 4.2% up on last time.
Chief executive Jill McDonald said: “Our retail business continues to deliver a broad-based top-line performance, against two previous years of strong like-for-like growth. Cycling continues to grow; the highlights in the quarter being premium bikes and cycle repair, with sales up 8% and 24% respectively.”
The fast growth in Halfords’ store collections comes at a time when retailers including John Lewis and Tesco are introducing new charges for click and collect. John Lewis said at the beginning of this month that it would start to charge £2 for collections of goods costing under £30 from July 28 because of the sheer scale the service has gained – and the costs that have accompanied that. Where once it processed 350,000 click and collect orders in its first year, it now handles more than 6m a month.
