Halfords has reported an 8.2 per cent growth in ecommerce sales, and said that 91 per cent of items ordered online were now collected in store.

The figure comes as the automotive-to-cycling equipment retailer reported sales up by 3.6 per cent in the 13 weeks to July 3, compared to the same time last year. Overall retail sales rose by 3.4 per cent, while auto-centre revenue was up by 5 per cent. Like-for-like retail sales were 4.2 per cent up on the last report.

Chief executive Jill McDonald said: “Our retail business continues to deliver a broad-based top-line performance, against two previous years of strong like-for-like growth. Cycling continues to grow; the highlights in the quarter being premium bikes and cycle repair, with sales up 8 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.”

It’s interesting to the see the importance of instore collection to Halford’s online sales, given that retailers such as John Lewis and Tesco are implementing new charges for click and collect.
Early in July 2015, John Lewis said that it would start to charge £2 for collections of goods costing under £30 from July 28 because of the sheer scale of the service and the associated costs. The company went from processing 350,000 click and collect orders in its first year of ecommerce operation, but is now handling 6 million transactions a month. Given that unlike some retailers, John Lewis is shipping stock from central locations to stores for collection. The company doesn’t fulfil orders using stock already instore, which increases transport costs and logistical impact. Tesco later followed suit, when announced plans to charge £4 for click and collect under the value of £25, going up to £40 by the end of July 2015.