Online sales carried specialty children’s apparel retailer The Children’s Place Inc. to second quarter growth. Without the 16.4% growth in online sales, the company’s sales would have declined for the quarter.
The Children’s Place is in the midst of a three-year program of closing about 10% of its bricks-and-mortar stores.
For the second quarter ended Aug. 2, The Children’s Place, No. 116 in the 2014 Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide reported:
- E-commerce accounted for 15.3% of total sales, Mike Scarpa, chief operating and chief financial officer, told Wall Street analysts last week, according to a transcript of the company’s Q2 earnings call from Seeking Alpha. Based on that metric, online sales were $58.8 million, up by 16.4% from $50.5 million, representing 13.2% of total Q2 sales last year.
- Total sales were $384.6 million in the second quarter of 2014, an increase of 0.6% from $382.4 million in the second quarter of 2013.
- Total comparable-store sales, which includes e-commerce, increased 0.8%.
- U.S. comparable-store sales declined 0.3%, while Canada same-store sales increased by 9.5%.
- Net loss of $10.7 million, compared with a net loss of $23.6 million.
“We remain committed to the continued execution of our key initiatives: e-commerce growth, the expansion of our wholesale and international businesses, investments in seamless retail and state-of-the-art systems, and fleet rationalization [store count] to deliver long-term sustainable growth,” says Jane Elfers, president and CEO.
The Children’s Place is on track to close 125 underperforming stores through 2016, including 41 stores closed in 2013 along with approximately 35 stores the company plans to close in 2014, Scarpa told analysts.
The Children’s Place did not break out e-commerce sales for the first six months of fiscal 2014, but did report:
- Total sales of $794.8 million, a 1.3% decrease from $805.6 million in the first half of 2013.
- Comparable-store sales declined 1.5%.
- Net income was $2.9 million, compared with a net loss of $4.4 million in the same period last year.
The company ended the quarter with 1,113 stores, including 54 international franchise stores in Bahrain, Israel, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
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