Hat World grows web sales 28% in 2005

Hat World Corp., a business unit of Genesco Inc., is reporting strong web sales for 2005.

In 2005, Hat World, No. 290 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, recorded e-commerce sales of $13.24 million, an increase of 28.8% from web sales of $10.28 million in 2004. Overall total sales grew 37.4% to $297.2 million in 2005 from $216.2 million in 2004.

Hat World, which operates Lids.com and two other e-commerce sites, is boosting web sales while at the same time consolidating operations. For instance, after several months of streamlining warehouse and inventory management operations, Hat World is able to keep better track of merchandise, more closely track product levels and instigate faster replenishment, the company says.

In 2005, the web represented about 4% of total sales compared with 3% in 2004.