Online revival for BHS announced

Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - 14:24 by David Aiken

While it may have disappeared from the high street, BHS is set to re-emerge as a force in the e-commerce market this week, according to the Guardian.

The firm’s financial implosion earlier this year saw more than 11,000 employees lose their jobs. And the launch of BHS.com on Thursday will involve a comparatively minute crew of 84 people working together to run the site and offer safe shopping online to customers across the country.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the range of items that are sold via the site will be fairly limited, at least in the short term. It will stock products which were most popular among BHS customers, with plans to expand beyond homeware and embrace fashion lines within the next couple of months.

The BHS brand was acquired by the Al Mana Group earlier this year and the new site will aim to be efficient and responsive to changes in the marketplace, according to company spokesperson, David Anderson.

He even said that it was not impossible to envisage a world in which BHS would actually return to the high street in some form, although would not commit to discussing this topic further.

Anderson said that BHS was effectively having to re-establish itself on the British retail scene, with the main benefit being that its brand is respected and recognised among consumers, meaning that it is not starting entirely from scratch like many other start-ups.

He also explained that the majority of those working for the new BHS.com had previously held roles within the retailer prior to its collapse. So those customers who are interested in shopping online with a retailer they know and trust will once again be able to do so when the site goes live and begins to gain momentum.