Full price sales at Next in its third quarter, to 27 October, were up by 2 per cent on last year with its online division, which includes Directory revenues, achieving an uplift of 12.7 per cent. Meanwhile, sales in its retail stores had fallen by 8 per cent showing that Next is not impervious to the widespread malaise in the physical shopping sector. However with its online sales up and its finance interest income rising by 11.9 per cent, Next is better placed than many to ride out the storm. The multichannel retailer is now expecting that it’s full year profits will be in the region of £727 million, a figure which is slightly ahead of last year. All this comes at a time when other retailers with less evolved online and direct services are closing stores and facing very tough decisions over the future. Some are expecting that Next could likely announce some shedding of unprofitable stores when it updates on its peak sales on January 3rd.
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