Consumers continue to reward Pier 1 Inc. for its return to e-commerce five years ago. E-commerce revenue grew by $35.7 million in the first quarter, nearly three times total sales growth of $12.9 million.

Pier 1 continues its previously stated strategy of investing in e-commerce and reducing stores, and the numbers show the wisdom of that approach, president and CEO Alex Smith told investors Wednesday on the company’s quarterly earnings call, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha.

“We enjoyed strong growth in online traffic, conversion and average tickets,” Smith said about Q1 web sales. Store sales fell below expectations, but “online-only SKUs are taking a larger share of our sales, which gives us great confidence in our ability to maintain the fast growth in our online business, as we build out and expand our assortments,” he said.

As a result of e-commerce growth, Pier 1 plans to close 30 stores in fiscal 2016, triple the number announced previously. Stores aren’t going away entirely, Smith told analysts, because they play a key role in what the company calls its new “omnichannel” sales strategy. “In the first quarter, approximately 36% of online purchases were picked up in a store and approximately 31% of online purchases were placed at a cash wrap PC (computers located at cash registers),” Smith said. “The careful reduction of our real estate footprints will allow us to drive growth to our omnichannel model, reduce store occupancy and payroll costs, and improve efficiency.”

For the first quarter of fiscal 2016 ended May 30, Pier 1, No. 161 in the Internet Retailer 2015 Top 500 Guide, reported:

• Online sales accounted for 17% of total sales, compared with 9% in the prior year quarter. Based on that figure, web sales were $73.4 million, up 94.7% from $37.7 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.
• Total sales of $432.0 million, up  3.1% from $419.1 million.
• Comparable-store sales, including e-commerce, increased 4%.
• Net income of $6.9 million, compared with $15.1 million in the same period last year.

Earlier this month Pier 1 was named the Comeback of the Year award winner in the inaugural Internet Retailer Excellence Awards. The award went to the Top 1000 e-retailer showing the greatest online growth after a year or two of declining web sales and that achieved such improvement through such steps as better marketing, site performance, merchandising and other factors. Pier 1 exited e-commerce for five years before stepping back into the ring in 2012.

In accepting the award, Stacey Renfro, the chain’s senior vice president of e-commerce, said the exit proved an advantage for Pier 1, as it was able to come back with a fully realized omnichannel push. Starting fresh was an advantage in that it didn’t need to worry about building on top of older legacy systems and processes, she said, “We got to build it the right way.”