1-800-Flowers.com narrows net loss by 29.5% for fiscal Q1
1-800-Flowers.com posted a net loss of $5.1 million for its first fiscal quarter, a 29.5% reduction from the net loss of $7.3 million in the year-ago quarter, on revenues that rose 6.7% to $95.2 million, over a year ago, driven largely by growth in online sales. At $48.9 million, revenue from online sales was up 19.9%. It represented 54.8% of combined online and telephone sales for the quarter, up from 49% last year. Online and telephone sales combined were $89.3 million, up 7.2%.
An expanded gift offering of non-floral products helped attract 484,000 new customers during the first quarter. Most of those new customers--61%, or 295,000--came to the company through the online channel. About 1.2 million customers in all placed orders during the first quarter, including 58.3% that were repeat customers, up from 56% a year ago.
Noting that its first fiscal quarter is traditionally the company’s lowest revenue-producing quarter, CEO Jim McCann says the company nevertheless was able to achieve revenue growth with several new marketing and merchandising campaigns. In addition, McCann notes, the company has continued to expand its corporate gift efforts and add to its sales team and its account base “in anticipation of an improved business gifting environment” as well as the holiday quarter ahead.
Looking ahead, “As we enter the important holiday shopping season, we’re beginning to see some signs of an improving retail economy. Throughout the quarter, we will utilize a variety of marketing and merchandising programs to deepen the relationships we have with our existing customers while concurrently attracting a significant number of new customers,” McCann says. “We’ve expanded our relationships with great gift brands that our customers are responding to. As a result, we believe we are well-positioned for what we believe will be a record quarter for us in terms of both top- and bottom-line results.”
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