Circuit City joins the $1 billion online sales club

The 2007 fiscal year was a tough one for Circuit City Stores Inc. capped by the announcement that the chain retailer will lay off as many as 3,500 higher paid associates.

But the web is a bright spot--Circuit City says web sales in fiscal 2007 reached $1 billion and it expects e-commerce to grow by as much as 40% in fiscal 2008. "We made considerable progress in fiscal 2007 and are planning for more in fiscal 2008,” says Circuit City CEO Philip J. Schoonover. “For example, our web-originated sales grew more than 50% to $1 billion compared to the prior year,” he says.

For fiscal 2007, Circuit City, No. 17 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, reported a net loss of $11.78 million on net sales of $12.42 billion vs. net income of $139.74 million on net sales of $11.51 billion in fiscal 2006.

More important, the web and e-commerce now represent 8% of total sales. “We expect sales from our web site and call centers to grow between 30% and 40% in fiscal 2008,” says Schoonover.