Lifestyle homeware retailer Garden Trading posted a record season performance for the 10-week Christmas period, "far outperforming the market".
MD Richard Bell puts the success down to "a range growth strategy that focuses both on delivering beautifully made, unique designs and on curating a proposition that specifically drives customer value and retention".
While the Christmas category continued to grow, having been introduced the previous year, the company also launched its first range of UK MTO furniture, which it says proved "an immediate success".
It saw 50% YoY growth across the furniture ranges, including 90% growth across living room and 70% growth across its expanded kitchen and dining offer. In homewares, Garden Trading recorded 90% growth across textiles and 50% growth across its new tableware ranges. It also saw 45% sales growth in seasonal Christmas ranges.
Garden Trading also launched CLUB, its CRM benefits scheme at the start of the autumn/winter season, which it says contributed strongly to a surge in customer performance.
Richard adds: "CLUB has been very well received and has had a dramatic effect both on bringing new customers to Garden Trading, and on how they act once they have given us a try. We had our two biggest ever months for customer acquisition, whilst achieving excellent metrics for our existing customers with retention coming in at 60% and increasing average customer value by 22% through improvements in spend and frequency.
"Nothing comes easily in this category, so it’s a great reflection of the creativity, resilience and culture of our teams that this has been achieved against such a challenging trading environment."
Garden Trading finished the year with sales up 41% YoY.
