1-800-FLOWERS.COM Inc. reported yesterday that revenue rose 15.6 percent in its fiscal first quarter, ended Oct. 2, for a total of $112.8 million.
The Westbury, NY-based multichannel gift marketer also said online revenue increased 17.3 percent to $62.3 million while telephone sales grew 2.1 percent to $38.4 million. The company's net loss for the quarter was $6.6 million, or 10 cents per share.
Due to the lack of gifting occasions in the summer, 1-800-FLOWERS' first quarter is traditionally its smallest in terms of revenue. In this year's first quarter, the company's operating expense ratio increased to 50.7 percent compared with 45.6 percent last year because of increased marketing efforts and continued investments in its Bloomnet business-to-business florist operations, among other factors.
Also in the first quarter, the company attracted 508,000 new customers, 66.4 percent of whom came to the company from its Web site. More than 1.3 million customers placed orders in the period, of which 61 percent were repeat customers.
Chantal Todé covers catalog and retail news and BTB marketing for DM News and DM News.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
