Poundland creator to take budget shopping online

Tuesday, January 28, 2014 - 11:24 by David Aiken

Steve Smith is the man who came up with the concept for Poundland, one of the UK's most successful high street retailers, which has risen to prominence by offering everything for a pound or less.

Now Retail Week reports that Smith is taking this idea to the world of shopping online, with a new site called Poundshop.com set to go live in the first half of 2014.

As the name suggests, this digital outlet will follow in the footsteps of its bricks and mortar contemporaries, letting people pick up budget products at a low cost, usually around the one pound mark.

Firms like Poundland have apparently looked into selling items online in the past, but held back because of the significant upfront investment required to get things moving. But this has not daunted Smith, who said that with high enough volumes being achieved, it would be possible for Poundshop.com to be very profitable.

Smith confirmed that people who buy products from Poundshop.com will need to pay for delivery, with a charge of around *3 anticipated for a typical order. But he said that most consumers in the UK would be happy to pay this, because buying on the high street has its own peripheral expenses, including parking charges, fuel costs and transport fees.

In addition, some research that Smith and his team carried out before embarking on this venture, showed that 43 per cent of people buying online would like to have the option of receiving their delivery at a shop rather than direct to their home, which is something that will be considered in the future.

A small scale launch of Poundshop.com in the capital proved successful and Smith said he was surprised at how much people were spending on each order, so a national rollout is just around the corner.