Gloucester might have laid claim to B&Q's biggest store (a title now held by Colchester), but the home improvement giant behind it is measuring up expansion on ecommerce for increased profits.

With online revenue more than doubling since the pandemic, FTSE 100 giant Kingfisher plc has 1,900 stores and 82,000 staff across nine countries. Along with B&Q, it also owns Castorama, Brico Dépôt and Screwfix, and is now aiming to fast-forward its ecommerce arm.

Profits for Kingfisher dropped by 20% in yesterday's full-year figures, but the retailing multinational wants online to account for a quarter of all sales. That proportion currently stands at 16.3%, although the figure is twice the level of 2019-20 sales.

The retailer said: "We will do this by building on our progress over the last three years to further enhance speed, choice and convenience for our customers, supported by our ecommerce marketplace and data-led propositions."

Back in March last year, Kingfisher allied with French cloud-based ecommerce software firm Mirakl to launch B&Q's first online marketplace. The site aimed to offer visitors an additional 100,000 products within six months, via selected third-party sellers. It currently sells from just under 400 third-party suppliers.

Total ecommerce sales at Kingfisher amounted to £2.1bn in its financial year to January 31st, the figure signalling a 9% fall year on year, while digital sales accelerated 146% on a three-year basis.

Earlier this year, Kingfisher lost its chief digital and technology officer JJ Van Oosten, who led its launch into marketplaces, but the retailer said it will now develop "more customer-centric digital tools and services" to drive online sales.

So far, we have seen B&Q implement a new product substitution algorithm to minimise lost online sales and expanded its range of customer contact points via in-app notifications and in-store couponing. Using AI and machine learning, B&Q and Screwfix have also received their first in-house recommendation engine to give customers a more personalised shopping experience.

Click-and-collect, which accounted for 87% of orders, was down 12% over the year, said Kingfisher, but ahead of pre-pandemic level. Services such as car park collection and contactless 'drive-thru' have helped to bolster the figure.

Home delivery was down by 2%, although it rose 91% over a three-year basis, reflecting B&Q'smove into marketplace and same-day delivery roll out.

Kingfisher said that faster fulfilment is a "key competitive advantage" and has upped its focus on next-day and same-day home delivery.