Sports Direct looks for more online growth with Click & Collect and loyalty scheme with “annual fixed price delivery options”
Sports Direct International, which today (16 July) announced an annual underlying profit before tax of more than £300m, has reported that its online revenue has grown by more than 14%, due in large part to the launch of its new Click and Collect service.
Chief Executive Dave Forsey commented: “Online revenue has increased by 14.4% from £335.4m to £383.8m in the year, driven largely by the successful launch of Click and Collect in the UK during the second half of the year, which now accounts for over 20% of all UK online orders. This performance is exceptional considering we charge £4.99 for this service. Online sales represented 16.5% of Sports Retail sales (FY14: 15.1%), excluding wholesale sales.”
Yesterday (15 July), the latest IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index emphasised the growing importance of the m-commerce sector (sales via a smartphone or tablet device) – and Sports Direct’s experience reinforces this message.
“Our mobile site continues to drive sales and was recently ranked in the top four retailers in the FTSE 100 in terms of mobile website performance, according to a recent study released by The Search Agency,” said Forsey. ” Mobile traffic now accounts for over 50% of all online visits. We have also re-designed our checkout, introducing a guest checkout option and streamlining the checkout process.”
The company is also gearing up for the needs of cross-border e-commerce.
“We have worked hard to improve the customer experience in Europe,” continued Forsey, “widening the language and currency conversion options on our sites for non-English speaking countries and going forward plan to introduce dedicated websites for our European businesses and additional payment methods including Ideal, Giro and Sofort.”
Forsey said that, following the launch of Click and Collect in the UK for both Sports Direct and USC, the company now plans to “continue to roll this out across the other Group websites”.
Further opportunities to grow this business, added Forsey, “include the launch of a loyalty scheme for customers including annual fixed price delivery options and the development of dedicated websites and improved payment options across Europe”.
