A domestic online sales gain of nearly 24% helped buoy an otherwise disappointing first quarter of fiscal 2017 for electronics retailer Best Buy Co. Inc.
In its first quarter earnings release filed Tuesday morning, Best Buy, No. 12 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, reported domestic comparable online sales growth of 23.9% during Q1 2017 compared with 5.3% growth last year. During the quarter, online accounted for 10.6% of domestic revenue, or $832 million, up from $671 million last year, when online accounted for 8.5% of total domestic sales.
Chief financial officer Sharon McCollam attributed that online sales growth to unspecified gains in traffic and conversion. CEO Hubert Joly credited those online sales gains to improvements that Best Buy has made to its website over the past three years.
“We’ve made improvements in the order, on the checkout process,” Joly told analysts on the call, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. “It’s a lot of small changes, both on the site itself and of course, the mobile experience that’s been investing significantly. So with a combination of what’s happening on the site, the shipping experience, we’ve improved in-store pickup, the experience in the stores. So it’s an all-out effort.”
Online sales proved to be the lone bright spot during the quarter, with revenue in the retailer’s other segments declining year over year.
For the fiscal first quarter ended April 30, Best Buy reported:
- Net revenue of $8.443 billion, down 1.3% from $8.558 billion last year.
- Domestic revenue of $7.829 billion, down 0.8% from $7.890 billion last year.
- A total domestic comparable sales decline of 0.1%, compared to a 0.6% gain last year.
- Revenue from its international segment of $614 million, down 8.1% from $668 million last year.
- Net income of $229 million, up 77.5% from $129 million last year.