// Primark could add click-and-collect services to its revamped website over time
// Primark will launch a new website in the UK by the end of March, and across its 13 other markets by the autumn
Value fashion giant Primark, which has so far shunned selling online, could add click-and-collect services to its revamped website.
The retailer will launch a new website in the United Kingdom by the end of March, and across its 13 other markets by the autumn.
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John Bason, finance director of Primark’s owner Associated British Foods, told Reuters: “We’re making the digital move forward in a very big way in both the UK and the rest of Europe. That will generate sales and profits for us.”
“Does this give us a capability to move further forward? If there was an ecommerce opportunity for us, it will probably be more in the area of click-and-collect,” he said.
However, Bason said home delivery remained off Primark’s agenda as the economics don’t stack up for its low-price points.
“You can’t get our value by delivery to home, it’s as simple as that,” said Bason.
Primark’s new website will provide customers with near real-time information on product availability by store.
Despite it’s new website, Primark still views stores as it’s main growth channel.
In November, ABF targeted an expansion of Primark to 530 stores over the next five years. up from its current 402-strong store estate, and plans to accelerate growth in the major markets of the United States, France, Italy and Iberia.
But 530 is “not the end of the line,” said Bason. “There’s a long way to go with this business in terms of adding space.”
“Without me being sort of categoric, you can see how you’d move into other geographies,” said Bason.
“There is huge potential in the United States, there really is.”
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