Levi Strauss & Co. will start let consumers pick up online order at its 3,000 stores later this year, the denim brand announced on an earnings call transcribed by Seeking Alpha. Ahead of the rollout, merchandise at stores in the U.S. and U.K. have already been outfitted with RFID tags, which allow store employees to wirelessly monitor inventory and update online product counts, according to CEO Chip Bergh.
Levi’s, No. 222 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 1000, also announced that ecommerce sales rose 24% year over year in the first quarter ending Feb. 24. Direct-to-consumer sales through company stores were up 11%. Exact ecommerce figures were not disclosed. Overall revenue rose 7% to $1.4 billion in the quarter.
In other earnings news:
- Web-only British fashion retailer ASOS PLC Holdings (No. 133) grew sales 14% year over year to 1.31 billion pounds ($1.72 billion) in the first half of the year ending Feb. 28. However, margins shrank to 47.4% compared with 48.0% during the same period last year as investments in technology and logistics ate away at the company’s profits. In particular, investments in the European distribution hub to bring it on par with its U.K. hub came at a high cost, and sales from outside the U.K. rose just 12% compared with 16% within the country.
- British grocery retailer Tesco Stores, No. 5 in the Internet Retailer Europe 500, grew its online grocery sales 2.8% for the year ending March 5. Tesco also disclosed that restructuring charges resulting from the closure of “loss-making” general merchandise site Tesco Direct amounted to 38 million pounds ($49.7 million) in losses.
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