MYER chief executive Bernie Brookes says the upmarket department store’s online sales are tripling each week and could soon be 5 per cent of its revenue, despite persistent competition from overseas internet retailers.
But Mr Brookes said that while Australian consumers were shopping online more, the medium would still only make up 10 per cent of their overall “consumption habits”.
Myer last week said its 2012 full-year profit could fall by up to 10 per cent.
The department store chain’s sales were $3.159 billion, down 5 per cent, driven by reduced sales of whitegoods, a segment Myer exited during the year.
Mr Brookes said Myer’s online sales were worth just $5m but the division was growing strongly.
“It’s happened very quickly and we’re tripling the sales just about every week,” Mr Brookes told ABC’s Inside Business program.
“So it’s starting to become quite a significant part of our business.”
Mr Brookes said that the retailer wanted to become more competitive online and would enhance its website to attract customers.
“From our point of view it’s tripling, 300 per cent up on last year, and growing at that sort of rate,” Mr Brookes said.
“Each week it’s getting bigger and bigger, so there’s no doubt it could go to 3, 4 or 5 per cent of our sales very quickly.
“But how quick that happens depends on how good the offer is on our website, how competitive our products are, and both those are big ticket items for us at the moment.”
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