Revenues from Debenhams’ multichannel business have almost doubled in its financial year so far.

Multichannel sales were up by 90% in the 42 weeks to June 19 compared to the same time last year, the company said in an interim management statement issued today.

“In-store ordering, collect-from-store and international delivery are all proving popular with customers,” it said.

But growth in this side of the business is far outstripping conventional sales. Debenhams said gross sales grew by 8.9% during the period compared to the same time last year. That fell to 1.1% when the recently-acquired Magasin du Nord was excluded. Like-for-like sales fell by 0.4%.

Rob Templeman, chief executive of Debenhams, said: “Looking forward across the balance of the year, we remain cautious about the strength of the overall retail market and the level of consumer confidence.

“However, we believe that our focus on self-help levers – including increasing gross margin through higher own-bought sales penetration, the recent acquisition of Magasin du Nord, our growing multi-channel business and the ongoing store refurbishment programme – will help to mitigate the macro- economic pressures and enable Debenhams to make further progress over the coming year.”

Picture: Debenhams

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