ail. While King declined to comment on the rumoured talks of a merger between the retailer and its upmarket rival David Jones, he provided further insights into the progress he has made on the company’s “customer first” turnaround plan. Here are three key takeaways from the call.  Myer is on track to reach $1 billion in online sales  Nearly a quarter of Myer’s total sales, or $722.8 million, were made online in FY22. This represents a 34 per cent year-on-year increase from FY21, indicating the retailer is well on its way to reaching its target of $1 billion in online sales. But King said even these figures fail to capture the true extent of Myer’s online business.  “The facts behind our online business are sometimes lost in the coverage of the day, but the growth we are seeing means we are outpacing our peers and competitors,” he said. “We are now one of the largest online general merchandise retailers in the country.” King noted that Myer is growing its online business faster than both David Jones and online-only marketplaces, such as Kogan and Catch. It’s also outpacing competitors on a category level. “If you take our home category, which has grown at 53 per cent in FY22, this has well surpassed the growth of pureplays like Temple & Webster at 31 per cent […] and when you look at our beauty category, our 17 per cent interest continues to outpace pureplays like Adore Beauty who grew at 11 per cent,” he said.  King said Myer is continuing to invest in growing its digital business through several key initiatives, including the construction of a national distribution centre, which will have more than 200 autonomous mobile robots (AMR), the largest deployment to date. The Myer One loyalty program is picking up steam  Nearly 600,000 people joined Myer’s loyalty program, Myer One, in FY22, bringing the total number of contactable members to 6.6 million, and more than half of the new sign-ups were in the key 18-34 age group. Noting that Myer One members spend 83 per cent than non-members, King stressed the importance of the program on the investor call.  “First-party data is incredibly important in today’s marketplace, and we have reaped the benefits from our Myer One program, with over 71 per cent of all purchasers using the Myer One card, our highest on record since publicly listing in 2009,” he said.  “It is that compelling foundation for our business and one that will continue to underpin growth for our business, as we leverage better insights to inform better business decisions by us, deliver greater insight and support for our business partners, provide a strong and actionable database to commercialise further and importantly, maintain and deepen the connection with our most loyal customers.” Stores will continue to play a key role going forward At the same time, King made sure to mention the growth that Myer is seeing in its bricks-and-mortar stores, with comparable sales up 8.9 per cent in FY22, driven largely by stores outside the CBD locations. Stores will continue to play a key role in the business going forward, as part of the retailer’s “customer first” offering. “The bottom line is that customers want to shop across multiple channels, not just online. They want to come to our stores, they want to buy from us online, and they want to experience stock within stores, and they want the ability and the flexibility and the convenience to choose,” he said.   The pandemic period demonstrated this, with customers shopping online during lockdowns, and returning to stores once lockdowns were lifted. Going forward, the retailer will continue to right-size its store network, while investing in modernising the look and feel of its stores. Several major refurbishments were completed in FY22, and another 17 stores slated for improvements in FY23. In addition, King said the retailer has embarked on “the biggest technology transformation in recent history” in its stores, including the rollout of a new point-of-sale system and continued investment in its proprietary team member platform, which store staff use to serve customers. “We know from looking at our data that our omnichannel customer is more valuable,” King said. “They spend more per customer, they are more engaged, shopping more frequently […] and are more loyal than our single-channel customers.”