Shop Direct notes 512% surge in pre-tax profit
Shop Direct has noted a massive growth in pre-tax profit, up 512 per cent to £40.4m verus £6.6m for the previous year, the retailer revealed in its full year results for the 12 months to 30 June 2014.
Group sales up across its six online properties, including Very.co.uk and Isme.com, were up three per cent to £1.74bn, versus £1.69bn for 2012/13.
Very.co.uk led the charge and delivered a 23.1 per cent growth in sales to £700m.
However, its heritage brands, Littlewoods.com and KandCo.com, reported a decline of 7.6 per cent.
The retailer experienced continued growth in online and mobile sales.
Over four-fifths (84 per cent) of sales were completed online during the year, up from 78 per cent the year previous. This is expected to rise to 86 per cent for the first quarter of 2014/15.
Meanwhile, 44 per cent of all online sales were made on a mobile device, up from 27 per cent in 2012/13. Again, this is expected to rise to 52 per cent for the first quarter of 2014/15.
Additionally, more than half (54 per cent) of customers now browse and shop across more than one device, with a fifth using a three-way combination of desktop, tablet and mobile
Alex Baldock, group chief executive said that the results were driven by the outstanding growth of Very.co.uk and the “unrelenting boom” in m-commerce.
“Mobile continues to be a game changer for us, with more than half of our online sales now from smartphones and tablets. It’s clear that our strategy is working and we’ve made some big strides toward building a world class digital retailer,” he continued.
“But we’re nowhere near the full potential of this business, there’s a ton more to do, and we’ll continue to invest heavily to get it done.”