The supermarket said total online sales rose 14 per cent in the six weeks to January 4. It said that was balanced between an 11 per cent rise in grocery orders, a total of 3 million in the period, and 1.5 million general merchandise purchases, up 25 per cent.
Tesco's general merchandise business is much smaller than its main grocery delivery business but it is making efforts to improve ranges and attract more shoppers.
However, the supermarket is struggling against a significant drop in disposable incomes in its main UK market. Like-for-like sales in the UK during the six weeks fell 2.3 per cent. That was worse that the rate of decline reported in the preceding third quarter.
However, it said one third of all its grocery orders were made via a mobile. It said there was a 'marked increase' in the number of gifts bought online via Tesco Direct with over 70 per cent of the orders subsequently collected in store.
It said it now has 1,700 Click and Collect facilities in its shops. Online clothing sales grew 70 per cent.
'As expected, this Christmas saw a further consumer shift towards multichannel retailing, and Tesco continues to play a leading role. The increasing focus we have placed in recent years on extending our lead in online grocery and on rolling out our Express format to over 1,600 stores in the UK alone has positioned us well to meet customers’ changing needs,' said chief executive Philip Clarke.
But he added: 'We continued to invest in the most compelling offer for the tens of millions of customers who chose to shop with us this Christmas, but further weakness in the grocery market as a whole continued to impact our performance in the UK.'
He said: 'Our ongoing work to Build a Better Tesco in the UK is also driving continued improvements for customers, although the effects are being masked in the short term by the strategic changes we have made to improve the long-term sustainability of our business – the transformation of our general merchandise business and the significant reduction in our new store opening programme.'
No comments:
Post a Comment