Poundland extends online offer to Telford, Newport, Much Wenlock and Market Drayton

The pilot - based initially out of Poundland’s new fulfilment centre in Cannock, Staffordshire - was quietly tested earlier in the year by 18,000 staff and selected guests.

It is now available to more than seven million households, around a ninth of the UK’s population, as it looks to take a portion of the UK's online delivery market.

The new areas being taken on include homes with a Telford postcode, which also takes in Newport, Much Wenlock and Market Drayton, as well as looking to spread into Yorkshire.

Since the launch, the range of products has been extended and it now offers more than 3,000 items for home delivery, including some exclusive offers only available online.

This week the online service is also being extended to more areas in the Midlands, those with Nottingham, Leicester and Coventry postcodes, as well as Sheffield postcodes in South Yorkshire, with a combined population of 3.6 million people.

After a positive response to the pilot, the service launched to 1.8 million people in Birmingham and Walsall postcodes in May, followed in June by another 1.9 million in Dudley, Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent and Derby postcodes.

Customers visiting Poundland’s pilot online service at poundland.co.uk/shop can use the postcode checker and if their postcode is a match, they are automatically passed through to the shop where they can then register.

All the items available online will be at the same price as those found in Poundland’s 850-plus stores. The company says deliveries come with a flat fee of £4, regardless of the order size.

Poundland, which has its main base in Walsall, has partnered with Hermes to provide logistics services as it extends the pilot.

Retail and transformation director Austin Cooke said: “After a positive response to our initial pilot, we opened the trial to more areas in the Midlands and now we’re making another move which will take us across a big part of the Midlands and into Yorkshire.”