Groupon Inc. said today that its first-quarter revenue increased 7.5% over the same period last year. The daily-deal operator reported a net loss of $3.9 million, though, as international sales dropped about 18%.
“We are encouraged by our results, as our local revenues accelerated and our margins improved over the prior quarter,” says Eric Lefkofsky, chairman and co-CEO of Groupon. “We had record mobile performance as 45% of our North American transactions came from mobile in March, and more than 7 million people downloaded our apps in the quarter.”
In March 2012, 30% of Groupon’s North American transactions came from mobile consumers. Groupon also reported today that it has 41.7 million active customers—defined as shoppers who had bought via Groupon within the past 12 months—a 13% year-over-year increase. Of those customers, 18.2 million—or 43.6%—came from North America.
For the Groupon Goods segment, which sells tangible merchandise via flash sales instead of Groupon’s vouchers, revenue reached $162.3 million in the first quarter, compared with $19.2 million for the same period last year, a 74.5% increase. For all of 2012, Groupon Goods accounted for $454.7 million in revenue.
For the first quarter ended March 31, Groupon reported:
• Revenue increased 7.5% to $601.4 million, compared with $559.3 million in the first quarter of 2012.
• North American revenue of approximately $339.6 million, a 42.3% jump from $238.6 million a year earlier.
• International sales of $261.8 million, an 18.4% decline from $320.7 million in 2012.
• Operating income of $21.2 million, down 46.5% from $39.6 million in 2012.
• A net loss of $3.9 million, compared with a year-ago net loss of nearly $11.7 million
• Gross billings, which reflects the total amount consumers paid for Groupon vouchers, excluding applicable taxes and refunds, stood at $1.407 billion, a 3.9% increase from $1.354 billion in 2012.
Earlier this week, Groupon lost its vice president and general manager of Groupon Goods. Faisal Masud took a new e-commerce job at Staples Inc., No. 2 in the 2013 edition of the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.
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