With strong online growth.
Myer’s net profit after tax (NPAT) climbed 3.1% in the 26 weeks to 26 January 2019 to $41.3 million. However, total sales were down 2.8% and comparable store sales declined 2.3% in the half year period.
Online and omni-channel sales, including Myer Market and $16.9 million via in-store iPads, was up 18.6% to $151.2 million.
The online business delivered growth during the Black Friday period with online orders increasing by 151%, traffic by 98% and over $10 million of sales during the four days. Traffic to the Myer website continued to grow and reached a record on Boxing Day with over 1.2 million visits to the site, up 62% on the prior Boxing Day.
In December 2018, the free delivery threshold was lowered from $100 to $49 and charges for same day and next day delivery were also lowered.
Myer CEO and managing director, John King said, “This result demonstrates the positive customer response to a number of initiatives from our Customer First Plan, particularly during the all-important Christmas and Myer sale periods.
“There are a number of Customer First pilots underway across multiple stores to determine the customer response to new brands, preferred store layouts, brand adjacencies and marketing, which will enable us to roll out these improvements to further stores.
“There is a strong focus across the entire business on reducing costs that do not directly benefit the customer or enhance their experience in-store or online. We have put in place a more streamlined and accountable structure in the support office which is delivering positive results and we have identified numerous other cost saving opportunities across the business which may be material in future years.”
Sales during the second quarter were down 1.4%, an improvement on the 4.8% decline in the first quarter due to continued strong growth online, enhanced Christmas execution, more targeted and relevant marketing and improved service and store layouts.
“There is no doubt that we are on the right path with the right plan, and the right people in place to execute it, including a strong relationship with all of our business partners; however, there remains a lot of work to be done,” King said.