Cnova N.V., a Dutch e-retailer that derives most of its online sales from consumers in Brazil and France, had a strong first fiscal quarter, as it posted double-digit percentage gains in overall sales and gross profits.
Cnova, which went public in the U.S. last year, is a diversified e-commerce company that is part of Groupe Casino, No. 5 in the Internet Retailer 2014 Europe 500. It’s also No. 2 in the Internet Retailer 2014 Latin America 500. Cnova operates multiple global websites, including the online marketplace CDiscount.com in France, which sells products ranging from apparel and appliances to furniture and wine, and mass merchandise site Extra.com.br in Brazil.
Based on 2013 web sales data from Top500Guide.com, Cnova is the seventh-largest online retailer in the world. The six larger companies, with their home countries are: Amazon.com Inc. (U.S.), Apple Inc., (U.S.), JD.com (China), Staples Inc. (U.S.), Walmart.com (U.S.) and Otto Group (Germany). Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. of China and U.S.-based eBay Inc. are not ranked on this list because they operate online shopping portals where other merchants sell and are not themselves the sellers of record.
CNova, which reported financial results Thursday, had a busy quarter expanding its fulfillment capacity and “click and collect” program, which allows online customers to pick up purchases at local stores.
It doubled the number of pick-up points in Brazil and increased the number of pick-up points for large items in France to 593 from 444 at the end of the fourth quarter. The retailer also opened a new warehouse in Paris and added 35% additional fulfillment capacity at its distribution center in Lyons, France. The e-retailer says it expects to boost warehouse capacity by 23% by the end of 2015 and to reduce by three days delivery times for the midwestern, southern and northeastern regions of Brazil.
It’s also planning to expand delivery into eight additional countries by the end of this year.
“In the first quarter, Cnova Brazil significantly outperformed the Brazilian e-commerce market,” says co-CEO Germán Quiroga. “Combined with this quarter’s strategic investments to strengthen Cnova Brazil’s infrastructure, we are confident in our ability to execute our growth plans.”
Cnova also rolled out an assortment of new technology during the quarter, including a new warehouse management system from Manhattan Associates in France, and a new Solr site search engine and responsive design elements for CDiscount.com.
For the three months ended March 31, CNova reported:
- Net sales of $915.5 million euros ($1.02 billion), up 17.8% from $777.4 million euros ($869.3 million) in the first quarter of fiscal 2014.
- Gross merchandise value, or the value of all merchandise sold on its marketplaces and e-retail sites, $1.248 billion euros ($1.40 billion), a 28.2% increase from $973.7 million euros ($1.09 billion).
- Gross profit of $113.2 million euros ($126.6 million), up 17.6% from $96.2 million euros ($107.6 million).
- Mobile share of traffic increased to 45% at CDiscount.com and 25% at its Brazilian e-commerce properties.