Poundland and Poundshop founder Steve Smith has announced his intention to launch an online version of the Poundshop at Poundshop.com in the next few weeks.
It will be interesting to see how the concept works online because a discount store is a finely tuned business balanced on sometimes slim margins, keeping costs tight and having impeccable supply lines. Currently Poundland has 460 stores in the UK, employees 6000 and is the biggest discount chain in Europe.
The website hasn’t yet launched, there is currently a holding page, so we can’t assess the shopping experience quite yet. But it seems like the minimum order price will be something like £23 plus postage. And that’s going to determine whether the project is a success or not.
People shop at Poundshop and other such chains for the price. If minimum order prices and postage make them expensive then it’s unlikely to do well. According to reports, they are also considering a Click & Collect service.
19 Responses
Steve Smith is launching poundshop.com and not poundland which he sold his stake in 2002 see this Daily Mail article.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2547301/Everything-1-Poundland-founder-open-Britains-single-price-online-shop-youll-spend-23-time.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
I buy lots from Poundland every week and spending £25 or more at a time will not be a problems, because I spend that much now.
Sounds like a great idea.
I question the wisdom of restricting the product range to fit the £1 price point (this applies to the high street stores as well as online).
There will be lots of products that could be sold for a bit more than £1, but would not be possible for £1. With inflation the product range will diminish over time.
In the East End shop everythings a paaand and the shampoo is pantene.
When is ebay going to provide the option of minimum order values?
I have minimum order values on the website and this inevitably means several low value items are purchased together if those are the type of things the punter is after. Amazon have set £10 as a threshold for free shipping. Why can’t ebay come up with something?
That’s great news. Click and Collect would be good looking at number of stores they own.
Effectively this multi buy free shipping offer thing means that my buyers have to spend a minimum of around £21 based on my lowest value items so I have pretty much achieved through this workaround the minimum order value I want through this incentive, If buyers want a lower value order then they will simply have to pay the shipping. Thank you JD. Be interesting to see how it works.