BHS.com website to cease trading

The BHS.com website, which was born when the Al Mana Group acquired the brand name following the collapse of the former department store, is to cease trading.

Instead of the website, which was staffed by former team members of the old BHS business, Qatari's Al Mana has said it plans to focus on its store-based business, which involves franchising the BHS name outside of the UK market.

Al Mana acquired the intellectual property rights, domain name and international franchise rights to BHS after the department store's controversial collapse in 2016, a year after Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group sold it for £1 to former bankrupt Dominic Chappell.

The BHS.com website was launched in September 2016 offering lighting (a former speciality of he old BHS stores), homewares and men's and women's fashion. The news of its closure comes in spite of reports of strong sales growth for the website.

Industry watchers believe the BHS brand may have been too tainted to succeed in the UK after its collapse led to the loss of thousands of jobs and a hole in is pension fund, which Sir Philip Green subsequently plugged in large part with his own funds. Chappell faces a lengthy directorship ban for his part in its collapse.

ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks MILT commented: ‘Our new study, Departing Department Stores, launched just last week, highlighted the fact that department stores need a balance of attractive ‘event shopping’ high street stores, and a great online presence that mirrors the experience. We have been very critical of stores like Fenwick/Bentalls that don’t even let you purchase from their site yet! Department stores can only survive with a multi-channel approach."

"BHS.com never really grabbed consumer’s awareness – and perhaps the BHS name is just too tarnished in the UK. Just the same happened to Woolworths here. After its collapse in 2009 a new website site promised to restore the wonder of Woolies online, but that too couldn’t stand alone, and its owners eventually merged it with Very. Former high street brands' move to online only sales don’t seem to have a great success rate," Jinks added.

The last day of trading for BHS.com will be 27 June 2018.