Post-work shopping has now become ‘all-day shopping’ for the companies that have managed to shift to e-tailing amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Life Style Sports is now selling entirely online after it recently closed all of its nationwide stores. The Irish sports retailer said that while the move online might not fully rescue the loss of revenue from its store closures, it highlighted the importance of operating a balanced omnichannel retailing model.

According to Mark Stafford, CEO of Lifestyle Sports, traffic to www.lifestylesports.com has increased by 50% since the physical store closures and is growing day on day.

“At pace, we’ve made the switch to 100% online retail, while working in a way that prioritises our team’s health and safety. Our online retail service is well established and, though it’s incredibly challenging for all of us in retail right now, it’s encouraging for us to see our online service be of value to our customers during this period of adjustment.

“We plan to continue adapting and responding to our customers’ needs over the coming weeks with some online resources that will facilitate people’s need for health and wellbeing advice, at a time where gyms and team sports are on pause.”

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Trends identified by Life Style Sports from the first week of the Covid-19 lockdown show that peak shopping times have moved from the traditional time of 7-10pm to what the company is calling “a more sustained shopping time” throughout the day.

The most popular purchases over the last week are women’s leisure wear, with women’s leggings representing almost 40% of total sales for Life Style Sports.

Other popular purchases include running and training apparel, yoga mats and footballs.

Life Style Sports has also modified its existing home delivery service, introducing a ‘safe next-day delivery service’ offering more flexibility for consumers.

The delivery service utilises a maintained cut-off time for next-day delivery of 10pm and operates six days a week. Orders placed on Sunday to Friday are delivered the next day, while a signature-free delivery setup ensures no physical contact is required.

Other features of the service include the option to deliver to a parcel locker and an extended 60-day returns policy. All returns are also taken care of free of charge, while new returns options include collection from home, and drop-off at a local post office or convenience store.

Life Style Sports has also pulled all uncollected ‘Click and Collect’ orders from stores and contacted customers to notify them and redirect their deliveries.