Primark is extending its click-and-collect trial to London amid growing sales and the success of the 25-store trial launched last year.
Starting this summer, London-based shoppers will be able to browse through Primark’s range of kids’ products across clothing and nursery and collect the items from one of 32 stores in the region.
The retailer already trials click-and-collect in 25 stores across the North West of England, North Wales and parts of Yorkshire. According to the firm, the most popular items via the service are larger nursery goods, as well as exclusive online-only options and multipacks.
Customers will be able to add the desired items to the shopping basket, with a £10 minimum order value and no delivery charge before collecting them at the chosen click-and-collect site.
Paul Marchant, CEO of Primark, said: “We’re really encouraged by how the trial has landed with customers, who tell us they value the choice and convenience click-and-collect is offering them. We’re also seeing strong demand for the service outside the trial region and it’s helping us reach new customers too.
“This gives us the confidence to take this trial to the next level and expand it further to more stores to understand how the service can work for a broader range of customers. We’ll continue to monitor the trial closely as we look to complement the experience and offer we have in our stores.”
Primark’s click-and-collect service caused much dissatisfaction at launch as shoppers were met with “Site Unavailable. Oops, sorry we didn’t let you access Primark.com today” messages after swathes of customers flocked to the online store.
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GlobalData apparel analyst Louise Deglise-Favre suggested that the trial would have been far more successful if Primark extended its click-and-collect beyond kids.
She said: “Keeping the trial to only its children’s range will limit its appeal, and it needs to assess how adult ranges are received online to fully judge its performance.”
On top of investing in the trial, Primark will also plough at least £140 million into UK retail over the next two years, including opening four new stores, refurbishing and relocating a number of existing stores,
and increasing selling space by around 160,000sq ft, creating at least 850 jobs.
Primark posted a sales increase of 19% to £4.3bn for the 24 weeks to March 4, 2023, reporting “very good footfall and margin better than expected”. Yet, its margin shrank to 8.3% in the first half from nearly 11.7% a year earlier.
However, owner Associated British Foods said its first half margin was “higher than expected”.
