Sales tumble 25% for eDiets.com in Q3

Sales fell dramatically for eDiets.com Inc. in the third quarter, but the company pared down its net loss.

For the third quarter ended Sept. 30, eDiets.com, No. 371 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, reported:

• Sales dropped 25% to $4.5 million from $6 million in the third quarter of 2010.

• Net loss was $1.5 million compared with a net loss of $3.6 million.

“During the third quarter, we continued to maintain a conservative approach toward spending on customer acquisition,” says CEO Kevin McGrath. “While this decrease in advertising expense resulted in fewer new customers and lower revenues than the prior year, our higher operating efficiencies enabled us to significantly improve our loss from the third quarter of 2010.”

For the first three quarters:

• Sales increased 5.5% to $17.4 million from $16.5 million in the first three quarters of 2010.

• Net loss was $2.7 million compared with a net loss of $4.2 million.