E-commerce continues to grow in importance to QVC. The TV, web and mobile web retailer says U.S. e-commerce sales totaled $655 million in the second quarter, accounting for 47% of total U.S. revenue for the division of Liberty Interactive Corp. A year earlier, web sales accounted for 43% of U.S. sales, the company says.
Of those web sales, 47.6% of orders were placed from mobile devices, up from 37.48% a year earlier. Measured globally, mobile accounted for 49.37% of QVC web orders during the quarter, up from 39.86% a year earlier. While up year over year, mobile as a percentage of web sales was down from the first quarter, when mobile accounted for 52.13% of sales.
Globally, QVC generated $848 million online in the quarter, up 8.9% from $779 million a year earlier.
Consolidated revenue for QVC slid 1% during Q2; the e-retailer cites the effect of poor foreign exchange rates as the culprit. Overall foreign revenue decreased 11%. Measured in local currencies, QVC says sales were up 4%-14% across its international business units. QVC also launched operations in France during Q2.
Liberty Interactive Corp.’s smaller e-retail holdings, which are collectively grouped as its Digital Commerce division, generated $149 million in revenue during the quarter, up 7.2% from $139 million a year earlier. The business units within Digital Commerce include Bodybuilding.com, which the company says increased revenue $5 million in the quarter, and e-commerce services vendor CommerceHub, which increased revenue in the quarter by $6 million. Liberty Interactive did not provide year-ago numbers.
Liberty also closed the deal to sell Backcountry.com to private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners on June 30, the last day of its Q2 reporting period. Backcountry’s web sales are factored into the Q2 revenue figures. Liberty says the aggregated value of the sale was $350 million.
For the second quarter QVC, No. 15 in the Internet Retailer 2015 Top 500 Guide also reports:
- U.S. e-commerce revenue increased 11.4% to $655 million from $588 million a year earlier.
- Total U.S. revenue grew 4.4% to $1.41 billion compared with $1.35 billion a year earlier.
- Online sales accounted for 46.59% of U.S. sales compared with 43.49% a year earlier.
- QVC U.S. mobile revenue accounted 47.61% of QVC.com revenue compared with 37.48% a year earlier.
- Global consolidated e-commerce sales were $848 million, up 8.9% from $779 million a year earlier.
- International QVC revenue fell 11.8% to $592 million, reflective of exchange rate fluctuations. A year ago international revenue was $662 million. The biggest drops were in Germany, where revenue dropped 16%, and Italy, which dropped 15%. The company does not break out e-commerce or mobile revenue by country outside the United States.
- Net income up 2.5% to $161 million from $157 million.
For the six months ending June 30, U.S. e-commerce revenue is $1.29 billion, based on Q2 numbers released today and previously released company figures. By the same calculation and term, global web sales for QVC now stand at $1.66 billion.
• Total revenue for the first six months of the year is $4.47 billion, down 9.1% from $4.92 billion.
• Net income is $410 million, up 89.8% from $216 million.