AO founder and chief executive John Roberts has said the group has “no plans” to return to bricks-and-mortar retail after closing its shop-in-shops with Tesco last year.
The electricals retailer operates online with no physical stores in place but previously operated five shop-in-shops in Tesco Extra stores.
Roberts told Retail Week: “We have some partnerships in place. We have a B2B partnership with Homebase where we’re their exclusive provider of electricals.
“So we do things like that but in terms of standalone stores, it’s certainly not in our medium-term plan.”
Despite high street footfall increasing post-pandemic, Roberts said online retail still remains important and he is “comfortable” being a pureplay retailer.
“Over 90% of people begin their shopping journey for electricals online and less than half the market now transacts in-store,” he said.
“The majority of electricals are now transacted online and that is where the growth area is, not in-store.”
AO reported full-year profit before tax of £7.6m as the retailer continues to focus on profit and cash generation.
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