O’Reilly Automotive Rides Jump in Ship-to-Home, BOPIS

Auto parts retailer O’Reilly Automotive has built an increasing level of loyalty among its existing customers and is attracting new ones in new ways, as its comparable store sales—which include online sales — were up for the fourth quarter of 2021 and for the full year, according to the company.

O’Reilly’s comparable store sales — which include ship-to-home and in-store pickup online orders — increased 14.5% in the fourth quarter of last year after an 11.2% increase at the end of 2020. Year over year, O’Reilly’s comparable store sales were up 13.3% in 2021 after a 10.9% increase from 2019 to 2020.

That growth was just one part of O’Reilly’s record revenue and earnings for the last three months of 2021 and gives the company 29 consecutive years of comparable store sales growth, record revenue and operating income since it became public in April 1993, the O’Reilly press release says.

“This incredible performance in the fourth quarter caps a tremendous year for our company, a year in which we delivered the best financial results in our company’s history, after setting the same records in 2020,” said O’Reilly CEO and Co-President Greg Johnson in the company press release.

“Our full-year 2021 comparable store sales growth of 13.3%, on top of our strong 2020 performance, represents a two-year stack of 24.2% and is a testament to our Team’s unrelenting dedication to our customers,” he said. “These accomplishments are all the more impressive in light of the extremely difficult challenges our Team has faced the past two years, and I am extremely grateful for Team O’Reilly’s commitment to meeting the critical needs of our customers during the pandemic.”

O’Reilly’s fourth-quarter sales increased $463 million (16%) to $3.29 billion from $2.83 billion at the end of 2020. Full-year sales increased $1.72 billion (15%) to $13.33 billion from $11.60 billion in 2020.

Related: Auto Retailers Tap Tech to Cut Risk of Finding, Buying Used Cars in Unfamiliar Places

Meanwhile, the average price of secondhand vehicles has risen 42% in the past two years to about $30,000, according to a report from industry pricing platform Kelley Blue Book.