Primark have always bucked the trend of much of the high street in not even attempting to embrace e-commerce, instead concentrating solely on its physical stores. 

With ever increasing costs and volatility around operating a home delivery e-commerce site, this may prove to be a solid commercial choice in the long-term, but the announcement of a new website suggests an evolution of their strategy, if not quite a full scale revolution.

The new site will not (yet) offer home delivery but instead does offer a stock availability checker. The retailer states that "the move marks a shift in the role of digital within the business as it recognises the critical role online can play to support sales in-store" . 

It seems clear that the relative certainty and stability of physical store costs remains attractive to this particular retailer - nonetheless the move points to the changing ways in which customers can be reached and how customers interact with their favourite retailers.

Certainly one to watch to see if this initial move morphs into something more....