1-800-Flowers.com Inc. recorded modest web and total sales increases in the first quarter. Q1, which ended Sept. 29 for 1-800-Flowers, is traditionally the e-retailer’s slowest sales quarter because it lacks a big gift-giving holiday, the company says. In the e-retailer’s earnings call executives said they spent the quarter making improvements to prepare for the upcoming holiday sales season, which this year they expect to account for 40% to 50% of annual revenue when factoring in sales from the newly acquired Harry & David brand.

“We made excellent progress toward the rollout this quarter of our new multi-brand web site,” says CEO James F. McCann. All brands now share one code-base and most consumers shopping the site now see one shopping cart, sign-in and address book. There is also a multi-brand points-based rewards program called Celebrations available and an unlimited free shipping/no service charge program called Passport available for a $29.99 annual fee. The web site improvements “will allow all of our brands to share the same multi-feature environment that we believe will enhance our customers’ shopping experience and enable us to develop even deeper relationships with them as the destination for all of their gifting and celebratory occasions,” McCann says.

One brand not yet integrated on the multi-brand web site is Harry & David; 1-800 Flowers completed its acquisition of the retailer of gift baskets and gourmet treats Sept. 30. Executives say they will be doing some cross-brand promotions this holiday to start bringing Harry & David into the 1-800-Flowers fold, but that it will by and large execute on the holiday plan the Harry & David team developed for the holiday season. “What we’re trying to do is get some learning out of this season without being disruptive to the plan that was in place,” says 1-800-Flowers president Christopher McCann. Harry & David revenue is not included in 1-800-Flowers’ Q1 financials. It will be included starting in Q2.

For the quarter ended Sept. 28, 1-800-Flowers.com, No. 65 in the 2014 Internet Retailer Top 500, reported:

• E-commerce sales of $84.0 million, up 3.8% from $80.9 million in Q1 of fiscal 2014.
• Total sales of $126.7 million, up 3.0% from $123.0 million.
• Consumer floral sales of $74.4 million, a 4.1% increase from $71.5 million.
• Gourmet food and gift baskets sales of $32.4 million in Q1 of fiscal 2015, up 3.8% from $31.2 million.
• Net loss of $4.3 million compared with a net loss of $4.6 million in the same quarter last year.

E-commerce accounted for 66.3% of total sales compared with 65.8% in the first quarter of fiscal 2014. 1-800-Flowers.com says 1 million consumers placed orders during the quarter, including 385,000 consumers new to the e-retailer. It says existing customers placed 62% of orders.