eCOST.com’s Q1 net sales rise 44% year-over-year
Spun off last month from PC Mall Inc., eCOST.com has reported a 44% increase in net sales for the first quarter ended March 31, to $55.1 million from $38.2 million in the year-ago period, the company said.
Due to costs related to the separation from PC Mall, including an increase in marketing expenses, eCOST posted a Q1 net loss of $1.7 million, compared to a year-ago net loss of $20,000, the company said. The spin-off from PC Mall also caused lower-than-expected Q1 sales due to infrastructure problems during the transition that interrupted web site availability, said chairman and CEO Adam Shaffer.
“Sales were lower sequentially due in part to first quarter seasonality following the traditionally strong holiday period and the management resources and attention required during the quarter to achieve the separation from PC Mall on April 11,” Shaffer said. “In addition, the systems separation intermittently affected our site availability and efficiency which impacted our consumer sales in the quarter.”
Nonetheless, eCOST added 124,000 new customers during Q1, expanding its customer base to more than 1.2 million as of March 31 – up 53% over the year-ago quarter and 11% over Q4 of last year.
Shaffer said he was bullish on eCOST’s near-term growth prospects. “Moving forward, we plan to further develop our product and service offerings and will invest in marketing campaigns to expand our customer base and increase consumer awareness of the eCOST.com brand,” he said. “We believe these initiatives will drive top line growth in the range of 40 to 45% for the year.”
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