Boots beats Black Friday sales expectations with record-breaking quarter

05 Jan 2024 --- Black Friday boosted Boots’ first quarter sales in the period ending November 30, 2023, as consumers continued to search for value leading up to the holidays.

Boots.com posted its “biggest ever month of sales” in November and “biggest ever day of sales on Black Friday.”

Store sales jumped over 7% during the Black Friday week, with Electrical Beauty, Skincare, Premium Beauty, No7 and Fragrance as top-performing categories. The company says a fragrance bottle was sold every second of Black Friday week.

This is the eleventh consecutive quarter of market share growth for the British health, beauty and pharmacy chain, with comparable retail sales climbing 9.8% year-over-year.

Strong e-commerce growth
A record-breaking Black Friday helped Boots.com sales grow 17.5% year-over-year. The company says digital sales now contribute 19.2% of total retail sales, with its app growing “at pace” with 7.2 million active users.

Beauty sales climbed 11.4% in the quarter thanks to the “continued strong performance of Skincare and Premium Beauty.” Hair care sales grew 10% after the company launched ten professional and salon haircare brands last fall, including Redken, L’Oréal Professionnel and Pureology.

Its in-house brand, No7, also saw sales surpass 13%.

Consumers seek out discounts
Boots says value is still a key concern for customers with its in-house brands remaining popular, especially skin and health care products.

After launching its “Price Advantage” scheme two years ago, the company says that contributed to a “large increase in sign-ups to the Boots Advantage Card, with the number of active members nearly at a record high.”

Merry Christmas for Boots
The British retailer believes Christmas and New Year sales will also be strong, pointing to the strength of its latest report. That data will be released as part of its second quarter earnings later this year.

Managing director of Boots UK and ROI, Seb James, remains optimistic about the company’s performance: “I am very encouraged by the way in which people are responding to the changes that we have made, especially in our digital and beauty businesses. It is really good to see that market share has grown for the eleventh quarter in a row, showing that more customers are choosing Boots.”

“This strong start to the year, together with a good Christmas, sets us up well for another good year, and I would like to thank most sincerely all of my colleagues for their hard work and resilience over this vital trading period.”

Will Boots remain with Walgreens?
Two years ago, Boots’ parent company, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), tried — and failed — to offload the company. The American drugstore giant said it did not receive adequate offers due to challenging market conditions, so it scrapped plans for the sale.

Last fall, however, reports surfaced about WBA paying US$1.25 billion to end its responsibilities for Boots’ pension scheme to take another shot at selling the British chain.

Personal Care Insights connected with WBA and was told the company would not comment on “speculation.” We have also reached out to Boots.

By Anita Sharma

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