Online electrical retailer reports "10 years of change in 10 months" with 67% sales increase

An online electrical retailer has today announced that it saw a 67.2 per cent increase in revenue across the final months of 2020.

AO World said that it saw a “significant increase in demand” since the beginning of the pandemic, with the October to December period reflecting its strongest ever figures for the quarter.

In the three months to 31 December 2020 the company recorded year on year UK revenue growth of 67.2 per cent to £457.3m and of 77.4 per cent to €73.6m in Germany.

John Roberts, AO’s founder and chief executive, commented: “I believe we’ve seen ten years of change in ten months, and experienced our strongest ever peak trading period.

“We backed ourselves by investing early in warehouses, vehicles, stock and people. This not only set us up to satisfy customer demand for electricals for the current crisis but also for the longer term, as the structural shift to online becomes a permanent feature of the market in the UK and Germany. One of our biggest achievements this period is to have our German business profitable throughout Q3.

“Our confidence in those investments has been rewarded by these exceptional levels of sales. We’ve seen how the short-term costs translate into a fantastic opportunity to drive lifetime value for millions more customers. We’re delighted to have earned their trust after their first purchase and their first experience of the AO Way.

“Now that customers have experienced a better, digital-first way to shop for electricals, I believe the majority will never look back. We intend to cement that change by raising the bar on our service and proposition in ways that only AO can deliver.

“We’ll continue to make the right decisions for our customers, partners, people and planet too. I’m hugely proud of how AOers have responded to challenges as well as opportunities, providing amazing service to our customers during a record period. I’d like to thank the whole team for making it possible, including the 1,500 new recruits who joined us during 2020.”

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