Here’s How Boots Has Been Winning Online Post-COVID

It’s fair to say the global COVID-19 crisis had a significant effect on customer shopping behaviour with lockdown restrictions and lack of confidence in public spaces driving billions to embrace online retail and eschew brick-and-mortar locations.

One sector which perhaps felt this transformation more than most was the retail cosmetics and pharmaceutical space. With the desire for off-the-shelf medicines and other related products at an all-time high – and supply chains buckling under the weight of increased demand – brands in this industry had to scramble to ensure they could fill orders and meet their customers online.

In the UK, there is one brand which is synonymous with this sector of the retail business, having been a high street mainstay since 1849 and being the largest retailer of its kind in the region (and Ireland) both in terms of revenue and the number of locations it operates.

Boots

Since the onset of the pandemic, Boots has seen its online presence grow to match that of its physical store network. A focus on enhancing its online and app-based platforms has seen the brand become the UK’s most visited health and beauty website.

In the post-pandemic world, Boots has managed to maintain its growth trajectory with Q4 2022 sales hitting almost double those it enjoyed pre-COVID. This growth has been fuelled by several improvements to the brand’s online capabilities including a more streamlined checkout experience, new payment options and increased security through Multi-Factor-Authentication – essential in the modern data security-conscious world in which we find ourselves.

"This is a really encouraging set of results. I am especially happy to see more and more customers choosing Boots over others and our market share rising as a result,” said Boots UK & ROI Managing Director, Sebastian James. "In addition, I am pleased with the progress we are making in quickly introducing new, trending beauty brands, our healthcare services supporting the NHS and, of course, with our boots.com offer which is now double its pre-pandemic levels.”

James was also keen to address how Boots will be leveraging its online and physical retail operations to meet the challenges of the UK cost of living crisis, which is seeing skyrocketing energy prices and grocery bills putting significant financial strain on the country’s households.

"We know that cost of living will be a big consideration for everybody, and we have frozen 1,500 prices, launched Boots everyday with excellent products for as little as 50p, and massively expanded our Price Advantage scheme,” he added.

Marketplace

In an effort to further boost the options available to customers shopping online, Boots will in 2023 add its name to the ever-growing list of retailers embracing the marketplace model and welcoming third-party brands onto its ecommerce platform for the first time.

Marketplaces currently account for around 40% of the UK’s total online spend and the model has been made popular by several high profile retail brands including giants such as Amazon and Alibaba, alongside popular high street names such as fellow health and beauty retailer Superdrug, department store Debenhams, and DIY vendor B&Q.

According to Charged Retail, "In the UK, approximately 900,000 businesses are currently selling on online marketplaces, generating an estimated £282 billion worth of sales every year.”

"Marketplace is the exciting next step in our digital transformation programme,” said Boots’ UK Chief Digital Officer, Paula Bobbett. "We are really excited about the benefits a marketplace model will allow, including helping us to rapidly expand the range of brands and products that we offer on boots.com across a range of categories, including beauty, health, wellness, and baby. "Marketplace will allow us to respond with agility to market trends with new emerging brands – we can be first to market with new products and services and respond quickly to customer demand for new and innovative product ranges.”

Boots acknowledges it has been somewhat slow to catch up with the evolution of ecommerce and has been guilty of gripping a little too tightly to the traditional brick-and-mortar model. However, the brand has certainly demonstrated its eagerness to catch up – something which is evident in both its actions and its figures.

"Boots has been struggling to keep up with the rapidly changing retail landscape for years, so it was due to make a radical move soon,” said Zendbox CEO, James Khoury. "They’re now following in the footsteps of retailers such as ASOS and Next, who also stock products from third-party brands, and are consequently thriving from the marketplace model.”

Final Thoughts

While a little late to the ecommerce party, Boots has certainly made up for lost time. With the improvements made to its online shopping experience and its embracing of the marketplace model, we see no reason why this storied brand shouldn’t continue to thrive in the post-pandemic world.

The marketplace model is sure to be a hot topic at eTail UK 2023, being held in April, at the QEII Conference Centre, London, UK.

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