AS Watson owned health and beauty retailer Superdrug achieved a sales increase of 4.8 per cent to £1.06bn for the year to 31 December 2014. Whilst it did not reveal its online sales contribution the business confirmed that multichannel was becoming increasingly important and that it “extending products, delivery options and in-store accessibility to make it easier for customers to access products and advice” were priorities for the current year.
In May last year ASW had announced the acceleration of its digital and customer relationship management strategy with a US $60 million investment over three years to meet the needs to today’s shoppers. With global revenues of US $19 billion, the ambition is for five percent of this revenue to come from eCommerce within 18 months. It has since established in-house digital teams alongside each of its business units to help build their eCommerce offers and to engage customers online with a Hong Kong based team forming the central hub for the provision of technical solutions. The eLab will service Superdrug and The Perfume Shop in the UK, Kruidvat, Marionnaud and ICI Paris XL in Europe, as well as Watsons in Asia.
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