Sales in 1800Flowers.com Inc.’s gourmet food and gift baskets unit increased 4.7% in the fiscal second quarter of 2016, and that segment accounted for more than 75% of total sales in the quarter, CEO Jim McCann said.
But e-commerce sales, which include online and telephone orders of flowers as well as food items, grew just 0.8% and consumer floral sales declined almost 5% in the quarter compared with the year-ago period, the company said.
“By many accounts the recent holiday season was a challenging one, and our top-line growth was not as strong as we would have liked,” McCann told analysts last week on an earnings call, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. “1800Flowers achieved a double-digit increase in our bottom-line results through our continued rigorous focus on marketing, merchandising and operating costs across the enterprise. We are pleased with these results, particularly in light of a challenging environment characterized by lower retail traffic, heightened levels of promotions and uneven consumer demand.”
1800Flowers, No. 56 in the Internet Retailer 2015 Top 500 Guide, also has made strides with cross-brand marketing and a consolidated customer database, and that’s helping to drive customer loyalty, he said. The retailer’s multibranded e-commerce platform uses one home page with multiple tabs for its brands, including Harry & David gourmet treats and gifts, Fannie May candy, Cheryl’s cookies, The Popcorn Factory and Wolferman’ baked goods.
“We continue to see good steady increases in our cross-brand shopping activity between the customers, thus giving new exposure,” McCann told analysts, though he did not give a percentage increase. “For example, this holiday period while we had the boutique tabs of Harry & David and Wolferman’s up on site, we saw the benefits of exposing those brands to the customer traffic from 1800Flowers and Cheryl’s and Fannie May, et cetera, and saw some good activity and engagement there.”
For the quarter ended Dec. 27, 1-800-Flowers reported:
- E-commerce sales of $412.3 million, up 0.8% from $409.1 million in Q2 of fiscal 2015.
- Total sales of $548.4 million, up 2.6% from $534.3 million.
- Consumer floral sales of $94.8 million, a 4.8% decrease from $99.6 million.
- Gourmet food and gift baskets sales of $434.3 million, up 4.7% from $414.7 million.
- BloomNet Wire Service revenue of $19.7 million, down 2.0% from $20.1 million.
- About 2.5 million consumer orders, of which about 1 million, or 40%, were from new customers.
- Net income of $61.5 million, up 35.2% compared with $45.5 million in the same quarter last year.
For the six months ended Dec. 27, 1800Flowers reported:
- E-commerce sales of $517.0 million, up 4.8% from $493.1 million in Q2 of fiscal 2015.
- Total sales of $704.4 million, up 6.6% from $661.0 million.
- Consumer floral sales of $167.8 million, a 3.6% decrease from $174.0 million.
- Gourmet food and gift baskets sales of $495.9 million, up 10.9% from $447.0 million.
- BloomNet Wire Service revenue of $41.2 million, up 2.7% from $40.1 million.
- Net income of $56.0 million, up 36.6% compared with $41.0 million in the same quarter last year.