The parent company of Superdrug and The Perfume Shop has delivered an overall 47 per cent increase in online health and beauty sales in 2016, thanks to a major investment in its ecommerce platform.
In Europe, AS Watson recorded a 42 per cent sales increase in 2016 with cosmetics up 63 per cent and all categories of fragrance, toiletries, skincare and health performing well, too.
Black Friday was a highlight, when sales up shot up by over 103 per cent with four orders processed every five seconds across all of AS Watson‘s retail brands in Europe.
Meanwhile in the UK alone, Superdrug posted a whopping 60 per cent increase in online sales.
The results come after AS Watson announced plans to accelerate its digital strategy in 2014 with an initial investment of $60 million (£48 million).
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Since then the company has worked to improve mobile customer experience, roll out mobile apps, integrate social media, enhance content, and expand click and collect services.
In 2016, over two million smartphone app downloads were recorded while 15 ecommerce channels were launched in the past two years in Asia. This all contributed to transaction growth at over 72 per cent in 2016.
The digital changes at AS Watson now compliments its brick-and-mortar business model which spans over 13,300 stores in 25 markets.
“What’s encouraging for us is that we are not only seeing high online sales growth but also seeing increased footfall in our stores combined with a high annual spend from our loyalty card customers who shop with us both offline and online,” AS Watson chief operation officer Malina Ngai said.
“In the UK, for example, our Superdrug business achieved a high single digit like-for-like sales growth of 7.2 per cent for the five weeks ended 2 January 2017 while growing its online business by 47 per cent in the same period.”
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