Primark shuns online retail, but still harnesses web for engagement

Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - 11:24 by Sarah Collinson

This week it was reported that clothing retail giant, Primark, saw sales increase by 13 per cent at its high street stores in the UK, indicating that it is perhaps bucking the trend of bricks and mortar decline, in spite of not having a website that allows customers to shop online.

While in the world of supermarkets, Morrisons has come under fire for its sluggish rollout of an e-commerce platform, leading to flagging in-store activity, the same cannot be said for this budget retailer.

The Mirror reports that spokesperson, John Bason, was dismissive of the idea that safe shopping online would help the company to make more money, pointing out that the sheer number of returns that other clothing outlets have to deal with when offering e-commerce solutions to customers, can end up being a real drain on resources.

And because Primark sells so many of its items at the very bottom end of the pricing scale, it is simply not feasible to package something that sells for £2 when there is a high chance of it being returned and costing the company even more money.

But of course, it is worth noting that even without an e-commerce site, Primark still has a significant presence on the web and its site plays host to information on many of the items that it has for sale, as well as the upcoming ranges and trends that are affecting fashion.

Primark also has accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and even Instagram, with tens of thousands of consumers all engaged via these online tools.

So while Primark may not actually sell its products through the internet, there is no doubt that it relies on a web-based community to continue to thrive.