Online merchandise sales at Ritz Interactive Inc. rose 12% to $111 million in 2007 from $99 million the year before, but sales rose 22% for the fourth quarter with help from a PayPal promotion, the retailer says. Ritz operates more than 15 retail sites serving photography, boating and fishing markets.
Ritz Interactive president and CEO Fred Lerner says the fourth-quarter spike was partly the result of a holiday promotion that offered 10% off to customers purchasing through PayPal, the third-party payment service from eBay Inc. “The promotion was not continuous, so we were able to track it and see patterns, and there was considerable evidence that when we were running the PayPal promotion we got a substantial lift,” Lerner says.
Ritz Interactive’s recent revenue growth also has benefited from customers upgrading from entry-level point-and-shoot digital cameras to more sophisticated single-lens reflex digital cameras, Lerner says. “We also benefited from the introduction of three hot new professional cameras this season by Nikon and Canon and from our continued expansion into the consumer electronics, home office and corporate business, he adds.
Ritz Interactive is No. 114 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.
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