Projecting a pre-tax operating loss of $15 million for its e-commerce business, TJX Companies Inc. said it will discontinue retail sales at its sole e-commerce site for its T. J. Maxx and HomeGoods brands.
TJX launched its retail e-commerce business just over a year ago, in September 2004, developing TJMaxxHomeGoods.com with Fry Inc. But the web site failed to meet performance expectations, said TJX chairman and acting CEO Bernard (Ben) Cammarata.
We have decided to exit our e-commerce business, as it has not delivered the sales we had planned, and pre-tax operating losses are projected to be approximately $15 million for the current fiscal year, Cammarata said. Exiting this business will eliminate these losses going forward and allow us to better focus our energies into other areas.
TJX said total sales for the five-week period ended Oct. 1 rose 6% year-over-year to $1.5 billion from $1.4 billion, while sales for the 35 weeks ended Oct. 1 rose 7% to $10 billion from $9.3 billion. Comp store sales were flat for the five-week period and rose 2% for the 35 weeks.
Cammarata said he would provide more details on Oct. 11 on how he expects to grow TJX.
TJX also announced that it has promoted Carol Meyrowitz from senior executive vice president to president.
TJX operates about 2,000 stores under brands including Marshalls, Bob’s Stores, A.J. Wright and T. J. Maxx. It also operates several marketing-only web sites under these and other brands.