Primark, the retailer owned by Associated British Foods, recently reported revenues of £1.6 billion in the third quarter, with the reopening of its existing stores, along with seven new stores. With a history which dates back to 1969 in Dublin, the retailer now boasts 396 stores and 16.8 million sq ft of retail selling space. Its largest store is located in Birmingham High Street, offering 160,000 sq ft of retail space spread over five floors, while new stores in Marbella, Spain and Philadelphia in the US are on the horizon.
Tucked at the end of this positive trading news was an interesting comment on the firm’s approach to ‘digital’, which the press release stated ‘has a critical role to play as part of Primark’s marketing mix’. The company is, it says, ‘investing in a market-leading digital platform, a key component of which will be the launch of a new customer-facing Primark website early in the next calendar year’.
The ‘improved functionality’ of the website will allow Primark to ‘showcase’ a much larger proportion of its range and will also enable customers to view range availability by store. The retailer also plans to deliver ‘more personalised content to customers’.
Up until now, Primark’s website has been a very small ‘shop window’ on what is available in store and shoppers have had to physically visit stores in the hope that they will find something suitable in their size. However, since the arrival of Covid-19 and fashion retail shops being shut for fairly long periods of time on at least two occasions, perhaps the management team at Primark has realised this approach isn’t now sustainable? Other High Street retailers – Next and M&S for instance – were already offering online sales and, during lockdown, these kicked into action on an even bigger scale. Primark and its customers had to simply sit it out.
That said, Primark hasn’t said that it’s going to offer online shopping and we can only assume that this is because it has very little warehousing compared with other large chains and it simply doesn’t fit into its business model, even after the pandemic.
If you visit most High Street stores and ask if a particular item is available in your size, then a shop assistant will check the stock for you – nowadays typically on a handheld device - and, if one is available, pop into the store room to have a look for you. Its shop floor is everything to Primark - its retail space, but also its store room too. If you can’t find the size you want, the chances are it’s not available in that store, as everything is out on the rails.
With the new website though, it does seem that shoppers will be able to check online to check stock levels, if there’s something they want to buy. This seems like good news for the customer but, will it be equally good news for Primark? If somebody realises that the item is sold-out in stores near to them, then they might simply not make the trip and Primark will miss out on all those additional impulse buys we all make.
On the other hand, the opportunity to view some of the latest ranges online before a trip, could persuade somebody to visit Primark, when it hadn’t been on their radar. Whilst for Primark customers, this type of interaction with the brand is new, history has shown that improved web experience is a benefit in the long run.
If you’d like explore this subject more, then do get in touch with our team at Lake Solutions.