<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>327705</docID> <postdate>2024-08-27 14:05:14</postdate> <headline>Coles reports 30% jump in online supermarket sales</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-327706" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240221001905627200-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="601" /></p> <caption>Coles has posted an annual net profit of $1.1 billion for the 2023/24 year. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Derek Rose</strong> in Sydney</span></p> <p><strong>Coles has reported a 30 per cent jump in e-commerce sales as the supermarket giant worked to improve customer experiences, and has achieved a significant drop in store thefts.</strong></p> <p>Coles announced on Tuesday it had $3.7 billion in e-commerce supermarket sales in the 53 weeks to June 30, up from $2.8 billion in 2022/23.</p> <p>Online sales made up 9.4 per cent of all sales, up from 7.5 per cent the year before.</p> <p>The company said it worked to significantly reduce Click and Collect wait times and added several other new digital features such as shared grocery lists.</p> <p>Overall, Coles had $39 billion in annual sales, up 6.2 per cent from the slightly shorter previous financial year, or a rise of 4.3 per cent on a normalised 52-week basis.</p> <p>Coles' profit rose 2.1 per cent to $1.1 billion on a normalised basis.</p> <p>Chief executive Leah Weckert emphasised in a call with reporters that Coles made less than three cents in profit for every dollar spent in its stores.</p> <p>Ms Weckert said a continued investment in technology was helping to reduce stock loss from opportunistic theft and organised crime.</p> <p>Coles added "skip scan" cameras to another 241 supermarkets during the half-year, with 546 of its 856 supermarkets as of June 30 using the technology to cut down on accidental or intentional wrongly scanned items at its self-serve checkouts.</p> <p>Another 59 supermarkets added smart gates that open only after a customer has paid, for a total of 326, with 455 stores using "bottom of trolley" tech that detects when customers fail to scan large items.</p> <p>"There's continuing work to do," Ms Weckert told analysts. "There are a number of challenges in terms of the environment, with the degree of organised crime that we're seeing."</p> <p>E&P retail analyst Phillip Kimber said that Coles 2023/24 results were in line with expectations, but sales momentum early in the current financial year had moderated more than expected.</p> <p>The company declared a 32 cents per share fully franked final dividend, up from 30 cents a year ago. It will pay 68 cents per share in total dividends for 2023/24, up from 66c the previous year.</p> <p>Late Tuesday afternoon, Coles shares were up 1.9 per cent to a two-year high of $18.815.</p> </body>