At this time I’d like to provide an update on some of the progress we’re making.
We continue to add new functionality and assortment to our selling websites, mobile sites and apps. Today we have more than 200,000 unique skews available online across our websites representing an increase of more than 40% since last January. Any of these new skews can be shipped to our customers directly from our vendors.
We’ve introduced new categories online as well as expanded our assortments and others. Our online offers now includes such things as a selection of jewelry and watches and we have greatly expanded our online merchandise offerings for many categories such as audio and electronics, furniture, lighting, lugs, pet care, as well as one in garden.
Also on our Bed and Beyond website, you can now purchase a variety of greenhouses and herb gardens as well as some interesting finds such as motorized scooters, electric snow throwers, dog houses, aviaries and chicken coops. Further, to support our merchandise expansion in home furnishings, areas such as living room, dining room, and bedroom sets, we have enhanced our vendor relationships and delivery capabilities to allow for the shipment of larger items directly to our customers home. Our enhanced delivery capabilities give our customers the choice of several delivery options ranging from curbside to white glove which could include assembly and removal of product packaging.
We’ve also expanded our online registry services for Bed, Bath & Beyond to enable customers to schedule an appointment in an in-store wedding consultation. In addition, we now have the capability to accept paypal transactions online and we are continuing to expand the acceptance of international credit cards and international orders. We have partnered with a Third-party company to better enable the shipments of merchandise overseas.
We are also continuing our deployment of systems, equipment and increased bandwidth in our stores. These in-store system enhancements enable our associates to optimize our shipping costs for home deliveries as well as to improve inventory ordering and workforce management. It will also enable us overtime to develop a digital shopping experience that will provide real-time personalized offers and recommendations that can be sent directly to a customer’s mobile device. Wifi access to customers and store associates will enable a more dynamic shopping experience. Further, we also plan to launch a new robust Point-of-Sale system that will, in conjunction with other system enhancements, overtime allow customers to use their mobile device in our stores to shop and make purchases, to receive and redeem personalized coupons, as well as receive a selection of multiple items price deals to enhance their shopping experience. These new system enhancements will also enable customers to make payments in foreign currencies and receipts to be issued in foreign languages.
In addition, we are also creating flexible fulfillment options to allow us to deliver orders more quickly and cost-effectively. For example, to support our growing direct-to-consumer shipments, and the growth of our Health and Beauty Care offerings, we plan to open an additional distribution facility in Las Vegas in early 2015. As a reminder, product can ship directly from one of our distribution facilities in one of our stores or directly from our vendors.
Looking ahead we will continue to enhance and improve upon our online search and navigation capabilities which is one way to better understand our customers preferences and deliver a more personalized shopping experience, continue to enhance the shopping experience on our mobile websites, we are optimizing our mobile display capabilities. Continue to strengthen and deepen our IT, analytics, marketing and e-commerce groups. Enable our customers to manage their coupons in one place on our mobile apps. Expand our Buy Online / Pickup in Store feature into Canada and expand our online registry services for buybuy BABY including Canada to enable customers to schedule an appointment for in-store baby registry consultation. We are pleased by the progress and adoption of our omni-channel initiatives. We are also very pleased by our customers acceptance of our ever increasing and differentiated merchandize assortments. We continue to leverage our product offerings, services and promotional activities across all channels, concepts and countries in which we do business so that we can do more for and with our customers.
