The Very Group was performing ahead of the UK market over the Black Friday and Christmas period, according to its latest trading update.
The Liverpool digital retailer said Very UK’s retail sales grew 3.4% year-on-year, supporting Group retail sales growth of 2.1% during the 7 week period to 22nd December.
The strongest categories were toys, gifts and beauty (+8.8% YoY) and electrical (+7.4% YoY).
Games consoles and perfume were among the best-selling items.
“Our team delivered a brilliant range of products, strong pricing, an engaging new marketing campaign, and an improved online experience to give families everything they needed this Christmas,” said Lionel Desclée, Group CEO at The Very Group.
“As expected in the current economic climate, consumers were on the lookout for amazing deals. We served these to existing customers and plenty of new customers during our Black Friday campaign with games consoles, wireless earbuds and perfume among our best sellers.
“Whilst we are pleased with these results, we also know that the year ahead will be challenging for all retailers. However, our operating model, which combines multi-category digital retail and flexible ways to pay, will remain resilient and continue to provide families with a one-stop-shop for everything they need.”
While there were some strong performing categories, Home was down 2.9% and fashion fell 3.9% – although its premium fashion operations increased 14.7%.
The Group stated that 6.9m items were processed at its automated fulfilment centre, Skygate. The busiest day of the peak period was 27th November, with 205k products going through the centre.
