Shop Direct posts 3.7 percent rise in Christmas revenues

Shop Direct, which operates multi-category digital retailers Very and Littlewoods, increased group revenue by 3.7 percent year-on-year for the seven weeks up to and including December 28, 2018. The company said, group’s performance was driven by 8.8 percent year-on-year growth at Very, its largest and fastest growing retail brand. The company added that it witnessed revenue growth across the group while maintaining retail margin rate in line with last year.

Commenting on the trading update, Henry Birch, group CEO at Shop Direct, said in a statement: “I am delighted that against a challenging retail backdrop we delivered a record Christmas period in terms of total revenue whilst maintaining retail margin rate in line with last year. Given the potential impact of the political backdrop on consumer spending, we expect the year will be challenging for retailers. However, our peak trading performance gives us reason for cautious optimism.”

The company reported year-on-year revenue growth across all four group product categories – clothing and footwear, electrical, seasonal, and furniture and homeware. The company also saw an 8 percent rise in site visits to 3 million and 79 percent of online sales coming from mobile devices, up from 74 percent during the same period in 2017. Total mobile sales up 12.7 percent year-on-year.

Clothing and footwear sales were up 8 percent year-on-year at group level and 15.7 percent at Very driven by sportswear, which grew 22.8 percent at group level and 33 percent at Very. Seasonal also performed strongly, growing 6.2 percent year-on-year at group level and 14.1 percent at Very.

Picture:Facebook/Very UK