THE WHAT? Douglas has announced that its e-commerce sales soared more than 74 percent in the first quarter of fiscal 2020/1. The three months ended December 31 saw group sales hit €1.2 billion despite a hard lockdown in its core markets in the run up to Christmas, down 7.1 percent on the prior year.

THE DETAILS Indeed, in 2020, the German perfumery chain generated more than €1 billion in e-commerce sales for the first time in a calendar year, with 37 percent of Group sales made online in the Christmas quarter. In Germany, more than half of its sales were rung through the digital channel.

“Lockdowns and national coronavirus measures in the middle of the Christmas business had a huge impact on the weeks of the year that usually generate the strongest sales by far. Thanks to the experience we gained from the corona wave we almost made good the negative effects as Douglas has been gaining increasing momentum in e-commerce since the summer,” said Tina Müller, Douglas Group CEO

THE WHY? Müller explains, “We used the experience gained from the first lockdown and, with our #FORWARDBEAUTY.DigitalFirst strategy, continued to expand the online business substantially during the second wave of closures. In this way we have largely offset the negative sales effects from the lockdown during the Christmas business thanks to a strong online presence.”