The first year as a newly minted public company was pretty good for Rocket Internet SE, a German based e-commerce investment and technology company. In 2014 the company posted a net loss mainly incurred through the costs of going public in October on the Frankfort stock exchange. But sales from its global portfolio of online retail, marketplace and related e-commerce sites nearly doubled as did the company’s total number of active customers. Total orders nearly tripled.
For the year ended Dec. 31, Rocket Internet reported:
- Gross merchandise sales of 1.29 billion euros ($1.44 billion), up 93.4% from 744.6 million euros ($831.5 million) in 2013. Gross merchandise sales are sales that take place on Rocket Internet’s e-commerce and marketplace sites. They include sales from its own inventory and sellers.
- Net sales of 104.0 million euros ($116.1 million) up 43.4% from 72.5 million euros ($80.9 million). Rocket Internet describes other revenue as marketplace commission and fees from e-commerce services consulting.
- The combined web sales of Rocket Internet’s three online retailing sites—Dafiti.com, Lamoda.ru and Zalora.com—grew year over year 42.6% to 417.0 million euros ($464.9 million) from 292.5 million euros ($326.1 million).
- A net loss of 11.3 million euros ($12.6 million) compared with net income of 147.1 million euros ($162.3 million in 2013).
- Total number of orders increased 168% to 46.1 million in 2014 from 17.2 million in the prior year.
- The number active customers grew 101.7% to 12.1 million from 6.0 million.
Rocket Internet AG, based in Berlin, has provided the funding and strategic direction for e-commerce projects spanning much of the globe since its launch seven years ago. Last year prior to going public it raised $500 million to build e-commerce brands in emerging market where web penetration and online shopping is growing at a fast clip and where Rocket says there is prime potential for players to snap up major market share.
Altogether Rocket Internet is funding the growth and future prospects of more than 40 online retailing companies. In its first annual report Rocket Internet also disclosed the performance of several online retailers and marketplaces in Europe, Asia and Latin America including:
- Dafiti, No. 19 in the Internet Retailer 2014 Latin America 500. Web sales for the Brazilian apparel accessories web-only retailer grew 37.0% to $205.4 million from $149.9 million in 2013 while the number of orders grew 34% to 4.4 million.
- Lamoda, No. 139 in the Internet Retailer 2014 Europe 500. Web sales for the Russian apparel and accessories web-only retailer increased 84.1% to $182.8 million from $99.3 million in 2013.
- Zalora, No. 53 in the Internet Retailer 2015 Asia 500. Web sales for the Singapore-based online apparel retailer grew year over year 70.0% to $130.7 million from $76.9 million.
“The online economy is still in the early phase of its development, particularly in most of the emerging markets where we expect it to capture a more significant market share in a shorter period of time,” Rocket Internet CEO Oliver Samwer says.
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