Web sales continue to be the driving force at 1-800-Flowers.com Inc., where Internet transactions produced a 15.9% year-to-year increase in online revenue for the year ended June 27, to $307.5 million from $265.3 million, compared to a 6.8% increase in total revenue, to $604 million from $565.6 million, the retailer said today.
1-800-Flowers, No. 31 in Internet Retailer’sTop 300 Guide to online retailers, reported pre-tax income for the year of $21.7 million, up 77.6% from $12.2 million in the prior fiscal year. Operating expenses declined as a share of revenue, to 38.3% in the recent fiscal year from 40.5% the prior year, helping to maintain gross profit margin at 41.9%, down slightly from 42.6%, despite slow call center and home-and-garden gift sales, the company said.
1-800-Flowers said it acquired 3.1 million new customers in the recent fiscal year, consistent with the increase in the prior year, as its customer acquisition cost rose slightly to $17.85 from $17.68. About 5.7 million customers placed orders in the year ended June 27; 45.3% were repeat customers, up from 42.4% the prior year.
For the fourth quarter ended June 27, online revenue increased 10.7% year-to-year, to $93.1 million, as telephone sales declined 6.1% to $58.4 million. The retailer said telephone sales declined during the quarter due to a continued migration of customers to the web and due to lower-than-expected sales in its home-and-garden gift category.
CEO Jim McCann said the past year’s revenues represented organic growth that occurred without significant capital investments in infrastructure. "As a result, we were able to further strengthen our balance sheet, finishing the year with more than $110 million in cash and investments," he said. "Going forward, this will enable us to grow our business both internally as well as through complementary acquisitions."
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