There's plenty of evidence that they continue to expand in Australia now moving from online to “in store”& will be taking this global at a rapid rate.
Three big developments recently – in Australia - worth highlighting
(1) Chemist Warehouse
Chemist Warehouse(Australia's largest pharmacy retailer) have said they are going to use Afterpay “in store”
That is significance as they control 25% of the Australian pharmacy market by revenue – and have 300 pharmacies in Australia.
(2) Kmart
KMart (which has 238 stores) & last year did $8.5 billion in revenue,according to media reports, they confirmed last night they will offer their customers Afterpay –they will go live on 18th September with Kmart online.
But I suspect that is just phase 1 – going on line & then Phase 2 – some time later – will be to put it in the stores.
Other retailers who have stared just online have later on moved into their stores
The reason I know they will is that I have spoken to a few retailers about Afterpay – one was a large online + shop front for women’s fashion.
They told me as soon as they introduced it they noticed an immediate & sustained increase in online sales. Then later on they decided to put it in their physical stores & again sales spiked immediately. They were convinced it was Afterpay & they realize the supremacy of having it.
Also a friend of mine was a fashion retailer & I told him about Afterpay about 8 months ago & he had never heard of it – nor those in his other stores – but he said it sounded like a no brainer. They decided to put itin & he said sales went up immediately & the same when they put in their physical shopfronts. He loves it – in fact so much he bought shares in the company as well.
So when retailers put in online at first they see the attraction by customers & eventually they move it into their physical stores.
So I think in the near future we’ll see another announcement from KMark saying that they are going to offer it in their stores as well as online.
(3) ASOS Australia
ASOS Australia will soon be offering Afterpay as a payment option – which means that given they are UK based it seems likely that they will one of the first to use Afterpay when the UK begins.
ASOS.com is a British online fashion and beauty retailer. Primarily aimed at young adults, ASOS sells over 850 brands as well as its own range of clothing and accessories. Sale for the financial year ending 31 August 2017 were £1.8 billion. It’s worth noting that their webtraffic is actually 3 times bigger than Urban Outfitters as they have a large global following.
ASOS is known for its millennial-focused fast-fashion, selling own-brand products alongside brands like Adidas and Polo Ralph Lauren. Two-fifths of sales are own-brand and the company launches 5,000 new products on its site each week. At any one time the company has around85,000 products in stock.
ASOS was slow - but took up after they saw the big success by their main competitor
ASOS is doubly significant addition for Afterpay for various reasons their – but their slowness to adopt Afterpay has had a material impact on its Australian sales vs The Iconic – which is Australia's largest online fashion retailer, that reported Sales increased +41% to a record $268m & they are targeting $1b in 3 years)
It was this stark difference between these 2 (one had Afterpay & Sales soared vs the other that didn’t and sales were less impressive) which convinced Urban Outfitters to take the lead in the US.
Who will take the lead retailer role in the UK & who could follow ?
ASOS and Boo Hoo are the online leaders and this is a very big step for Afterpay to now have them on board.
My colleague in the UK, Phil Beard, observed that it’s also worth keeping any eye out for future announcements from Debenhams and Marks and Spencers – both of these have been talking about making their fashion store offering more relevant to younger shopper.
They won't start in the UK until they have a major retailer driving the push and among thosefour is probably ASOS.
Plus just in case you missed it ....
Myer amazed with Afterpay
Myer after last month’s Afterpay Day - where they premiered for the first time - Myer was staggered -not just but the sales number but the number of new customers they acquired.
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