Young fashion retailer River Island has introduced international shipping from its website from today (November 1).

The international shipping service is available to over 100 countries and the retailer hopes that it will help increase its global customer base across Europe, Central and South America, Asia, Australasia, the Middle East and Russia.

The retailer’s website, www.riverisland.com, offers the full range of River Island products across womenswear, menswear, kidswear, footwear and accessories as well as the recently re-launched Chelsea Girl range.

The move to international shipping comes following a programme of overseas expansion over the last two years as the retailer opened stores in Russia, Poland and the Benelux regions.

River Island also plans to open a further six stores across Russia and Poland before the end of the year as well as opening at least six stores in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, including the recently opened Westfield Stratford shop.

“The launch of International shipping is a huge step forward for the River Island brand,” said River Island chief executive Ben Lewis.

“We are confident that this step will increase our brand awareness in new markets worldwide and in turn support the current international store network by offering our customers the additional opportunity to shop at River Island online 24hours a day.”

In September Retail Week revealed that River Island became the latest retailer to warn that a crisis of confidence among younger shoppers had affected sales as it reported a fall in profits of 16%.

Profits fell at the privately owned company, controlled by the founding Lewis family, to £116.4m in the year to Christmas Day last year, with sales falling 3% to £802.2m

 

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