Lloydspharmacy in rude health over Christmas as like-for-likes rise 7%

The retailer, which has more than 1,500 pharmacies in the UK, said sales at its physical stores increased 6.3% in December. Online sales jumped 19.8%.

Lloydspharmacy said sales of its gift products in-store increased 33% compared with the previous year over the period September 1 to December 31. The retailer sold one Disney Frozen Beauty Set every 30 seconds in its first week of launch.

The retailer said the introduction of wearable devices was “well received” in the run-up to Christmas, with the category enjoying week-on-week growth of 122%.

Its click-and-collect service – available across 43% of its stores - proved popular and a fifth of all online purchases were collected in-store.

Cormac Tobin, managing director of Lloydspharmacy, said: “Customers told us what they like and don’t like and over the past two years we’ve been streamlining our product range to be more focused. This is something we’ve continued with Christmas, by reducing the number of products while improving the quality.

“From a price promotion perspective, while some retailers were reactive, this year we took a more strategic approach, scheduling BOGSHP [buy one get second half-price] events into the calendar and increasing our mega deal range. Last Christmas customers responded really well to our mega deals, so this year we doubled the number and saw 60% of our Christmas gift sales coming from these lines.”