How WoolWorths grew their online retail business by 162% in 8 years

Online retail is a long-standing area of interest for retailers/merchants. Having observed the phenomenon rise to prominence in countries like China and the USA, businesses all over the world are trying with varying degrees of success to embrace this method of transacting. Africa is no exception though we recently outlined the factors presently limiting e-commerce on the continent. 

As a follow-up to that article, we thought it apt to take a closer look into one of the few retailers that has experienced well-detailed growth in online retailing within the African context - Woolworths SA.

Split between its Fashion, Beauty and Home (FBH) and Food divisions, online retailing grew to represent 8.1% of all WoolWorths sales - a far cry from online sales share of 0.5% back in 2016. We analysed annual reporting by WoolWorths over an 8-year stretch to better understand what drove this 16.2x growth over an 8-year period.

Shifting focus…

In 2015, WoolWorths briefed investors on the evolving retailing landscape. The retailer noted how they expected the internet to play a bigger role in retail experiences going forward: