Internet Sales Keep the Bloom on 1-800-Flowers
Online sales drove growth for 1-800-Flowers.com in its fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year ended July 3, the Westbury, NY-based multichannel marketer of flowers and other gift items reported yesterday.Revenue totaled $186.1 million in the quarter, up 15.2 percent from the same period last year. Online sales increased 16.5 percent to $108.5 million while telephone orders grew 3.3 percent to $60.3 million.
Also, the company achieved double-digit revenue growth in its food, wine and gift basket category, which, with the fourth-quarter acquisition of Cheryl & Co., is on pace to generate more than $100 million in revenue during fiscal 2006.
For fiscal 2005, revenue totaled $670.7 million, an 11 percent gain from last year. The increase was driven mainly by online revenue, which rose 17.4 percent to $360.9 million. Floral gift sales grew 10 percent and represented 52.7 percent of total revenue compared with 52.3 percent last year. Revenue from the company's specialty brands businesses increased 12.4 percent to $226 million.
1-800-Flowers.com attracted 3.3 million new customers in fiscal 2005 compared with 3.1 million new customers last year. Customer acquisition cost for the year was $18.65 compared with $17.65 in fiscal 2004.
More than 6 million customers placed orders in fiscal 2005, of which 46.4 percent were repeat customers, compared with 45 percent in fiscal 2004. The company has 15 million existing customers.
