ShopNBC.com’s sales rise 18%
With a boost from fourth-quarter sales, ShopNBC.com posted $111 million in sales for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, up 18% from $94 million the prior year, parent company ValueVision Media reported today.
“The web accounts for 18% of total sales and we expect it to grow from there,” says ValueVision Media president and CEO William Lansing. ‘It’s our fastest growing channel.”
ShopNBC.com accounted for 18% of ValueVision’s total sales for the year of $617 million, including the TV-based ShopNBC and FanBuzz, a unit that provides e-commerce platform services to such organizations as the National Hockey League and ESPN. ValueMedia doesn’t break out total ShopNBC sales from FanBuzz sales. About 40% of ValueVision is owned by GE Equity and NBC.
For the fourth quarter ended Jan. 31, ShopNBC.com’s sales were $34 million, up 30% from $26.2 million in the year-ago quarter.
ShopNBC.com’s most frequently shopped category is fine jewelry, but Lansing says the electronic retailer is expanding aggressively into more merchandising categories such as home furnishings and health or beauty. “We’re about half way through our plans to broaden merchandise,” he says.
ValueVision said ShopNBC last year added 95 cosmetics, apparel and home products vendors and more than 2,500 new product styles. It said the cosmetics, apparel and home categories accounted for 21% of Q4 net sales, up 15% in the year-ago quarter.
"I’m excited about the possibilities that lie ahead," Lansing says. "Our goal is double-digit sales growth. We will continue to invest in new customer acquisition and retention initiatives, improved customer service, enhanced on-air quality and development of more sophisticated business intelligence tools. We will continue to diversify our merchandise mix on both the TV and Internet channels, particularly in home, apparel, cosmetics and consumer electronics."
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