Halfords launches online marketplace

Halfords, Britain’s biggest bike retailer, today launche its marketplace service to give customers more choice, with plans to stock up to 40,000 SKU’s. About 25 per cent of the company sales are already made online. The marketplace is powered by Mirakl, that just announced another funding round earlier this week.

‘More products to attract a wide range of customers’
Halfords Marketplace Trading Manager Nina Morris said, “This launch means we can react faster to the needs of our customers, with more choice and access to more brands. It also means we will be able to target new customers who may not have shopped with Halfords before. We know our existing customer is really digitally engaged – Halfords.com had 90 million visits last year and 25 per cent of all bike sales were made online. Marketplace is a huge opportunity for us to offer a wider range from bikes to scooters, drones to kayaks – we’ll be able to offer our customers all the latest summer must-haves and everything for family journeys with the convenience of home or work place delivery.”

The news is not just good for Halfords, but also for Mirakl, the company that offers the marketplace platform. Earlier this week the French online marketplace technology firm has announced that it has closed a $20 million Series B round of funding. The injection of capital will be used to bring it’s online marketplace platform to a greater number of B2C and B2B retailers across the globe and Halfords seems to be already the first big example of this strategy. Philippe Corrot, co-founder and CEO, Mirakl commented on the funding: “Global commerce is continuously increasing in competitiveness, and those who adapt to changing consumption patterns and place customers at the heart of their business succeed. With this investment we can capitalise on our market leading position in Europe and achieve the same success supporting the most dynamic B2C and B2B online marketplaces across the USA.