Web sales drop, but the net loss improved for eCost in Q1

Web sales were down in the first quarter for eCost.com, but the mass merchant also reported a lower net loss.

For the quarter ended March 31, eCost.com, No. 158 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, reported:

 

• E-commerce revenue was $20.1 million, down by 3.8% from $20.9 million in Q1 of 2009.
• Net loss was $260,000 compared with $400,000 in the prior year.

“We are starting to see improvement in the overall financial results of this business, as the initiatives we are taking towards improving gross margins in the consumer segment of eCost.com continue to be implemented,” says Mark C. Layton, CEO of PFSweb, which owns and operates eCost.com. “In particular, the development of our eStore Retail Services that formalize the linkage between our PFSweb services segment and eCost.com is expected to contribute to eCost.com overall.”

In late 2009, PFSweb launched a new division within eCost.com called eStore Retail Services, designed to establish the link between PFSweb services and eCost.com, Layton says. The new division enables PFSweb Services to offer certain interactive marketing, product procurement, rich content merchandising, customer acquisition methodologies and other web retail services that eCost.com has developed, he adds.

For the first quarter, PFSweb reported:

 

• Total revenue decreased by 1.1%, to $88.3 million from $89.3 million in Q1 2009.
• Net loss was $1.2 million, compared with a net loss of $248,000 in the first quarter of the prior year.

PFSweb provides business process outsourcing services and e-commerce software, in addition to selling on the web through eCost.com.