Web sales grew faster than store sales for Canada-based bookseller Indigo Books & Music Inc. for fiscal 2015 ended March 28. E-commerce sales from indigo.ca grew 11.8% from last year, the retailer reported.
For the fiscal year ended March 28, Indigo, No. 251 in the Internet Retailer 2015 Top 500 Guide, reported:
- Online sales of C$114 million ($91.5 million), up about 11.8% from C$102 million ($81.9 million) in 2014.
- Total sales of C$895.4 million ($718.7 million), up 3.2% from C$867.7 million ($696.5 million) in 2014.
- Comparable-store sales increased 6.8% for Indigo and Chapters superstores and 0.8% for its Coles and Indigospirit small-format stores.
- Net loss of C$3.5 million ($2.8 million) compared with a net loss of C$31 million ($24.9 million) last year.
- E-commerce accounted for 12.7% of total sales, compared with 11.7% in fiscal 2014.
Indigo CEO Heather Reisman says the company is encouraged by the fiscal 2015 results and plans on enhancing its online business. “We’re pleased with our full year results which confirm we are moving out of transformation and into growth mode,” she says. “Our customers are responding very positively to Indigo’s transformation, something that we feel is really important to understanding the opportunity moving forward. We continue to improve and expand our stores and our online experience.”
For the fourth quarter, Indigo reported:
- Online sales of C$26.6 million ($21.4 million), up 10.4% from C$24.1 million ($19.3 million) in Q4 2014.
- Total sales of C$186.2 million ($149.5 million), up 1.0% from C$184.3 million ($147.9 million) in the fourth quarter of 2014.
- Comparable-store sales increased 4.9% for Indigo and Chapters superstores and 0.2% for its Coles and Indigospirit small-format stores.
- Net loss of C$13.9 million ($11.2 million) compared with a net loss of C$14.4 million ($11.6 million) in Q4 last year.
- E-commerce accounted for 14.3% of total sales, compared with 13.1% in the fourth quarter of 2014.