Buy online, pick up in store continues to be popular among DSW Inc.’s shoppers.
Chief financial officer Jared Poff told analysts on the footwear retail chain’s fiscal third quarter 2016 earnings call that nearly 28% of the retailer’s online orders were fulfilled by one of its 500 stores. This includes consumers responding to buy online, pick up in store and ship-to-store options, as well as orders shipped to consumers from store inventory.
CEO Roger Rawlins told analysts that shopper’s choices are driving the company to evolve and adapt to those changing preferences.
“Online shoppers are increasingly choosing to pick up their purchase in store, whether to ascertain sizing and comfort, or to secure one’s purchase the same day,” he told analysts last week, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. “Our customers are demanding more convenient shopping models. They want to walk into a store and find any item identified on their mobile devices and if not available that day they expect it to be available somewhere within our network for next-day delivery.”
DSW, No. 133 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, does not break out online sales in its quarterly earnings reports. Poff told analysts on the call that online sales were up by a percentage in the low teens compared with the Q3 2015.
The retailer plans to roll out an upgraded version of its website early next year with a heavy focus on attracting shoppers on mobile devices. The new site will feature responsive design, which will adapt it to the size of the device the consumer is using.
“It’s going to be much, much more mobile friendly, and that is where the vast majority of our traffic is coming from. Right now, frankly, our experience is not great in that space,” Rawlins said. He declined to specify what other improvements are in store with the new site.
For the fiscal third quarter ended Oct. 29, DSW reported:
- Net sales of $696.6 million, up 4.7% from $665.5 million last year.
- A year-over-year comparable sales decline of 2.0%, compared to a 3.9% decline.
- Net income of $39.0 million, down slightly from $39.3 million.
For the first nine months of fiscal 2016, DSW reported:
- Net sales of $2.037 million, up 4.6% from $1.948 million last year.
- A year-over-year comparable sales decline of 1.6%, compared to a 0.9% gain.
- Net income of $94.0 million, down 24.4% from $124.3 million.