Superdry today set out how it uses online and in-store sales channels to engage with existing and potential customers. The retailer has opened a flagship store on Oxford Street to showcase its style, and says early performance has “exceeded expectations”. It also uses digital marketing to win customers and now works with more than 2,000 influencers.
Superdry chief executive and founder Julian Dunkerton says: “Illustrating our long-term commitment to the high street, our new Oxford Street flagship store launched in November, showing the best representation of our style choices and how we plan to engage with our customers, wholesale partners and the influencer community. It has been pleasing to see early trading performance, which has exceeded expectations.
“We continue to make progress on our digital marketing strategy and reigniting consumer interest in the brand, with the number of influencers we have engaged increasing sixfold year-on-year to more than 2,000 at the end of December, supported by our increasing investment in social marketing activities and ever-improving product.”
The update came as Superdry, ranked Top100 in RXUK Top500 research, reported a dip in sales, but returned to profit in the first half of its financial year as full-price sales increased by 12 percentage points. Within that, ecommerce sales have fallen by almost a third, while store sales have grown by just over a fifth.
The retailer continues to work towards becoming the “leading listed sustainable fashion brand”, and it now has a Carbon Disclosure Project rating of A-, having “consistently improved” its rating over the last three years.
Superdry today reports group revenue of £277.2m in the half year to October 26. That’s 1.9% down on the same time last year, and 24.9% down on the previous year. Ecommerce sales fell by 30% to £62.2m on last time and were 7.6% ahead of two years ago. At the same time, store sales increased by 21.5% on last year to £103m, but are 34.5% down on the same period two years ago. Wholesale rose by 2.7% to £112m.
At the bottom line, pre-tax profits of £4m are up from a loss of £18.9m last year and a loss of £4.2m the previous year.
In the following 11 weeks, to January 8, the retailer saw group revenue grow by 19.6% on the same time last year, but fall by 11.7% on the previous year. Its store sales have recovered (+84.4%) from last year, but are still 18.8% down on two years ago. Online sales have, however, fallen at the same time, and were 17.6% down on the previous year and 0.3% up on two years ago. The retailer said that footfall had been improving until the emergence of Omicron hit store visitor numbers, but that the impact had been less since there were no formal trading restrictions.
