Maternity apparel retailer Destination Maternity Corp. is replatforming its website this year with a focus on reaching the expectant mom on the go.
CEO Anthony Romano told analysts on the retailer’s Q1 2016 earnings call that more than half of all traffic to Destination Maternity’s website comes from mobile devices. Because of that, he says the retailer is taking a more “mobile-first” approach to selling.
“Our growing millennial mom-to-be customer expects a seamless shopping experience regardless of the channel she chooses—an experience we currently cannot consistently provide,” he told analysts on the call, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. “We anticipate the launch of our new website forum to grow our web sales at a double-digit rate for the next three years starting in fiscal 2017 with an ultimate goal to drive e-commerce business toward 20% of sales, with limited cannibalization to our physical stores.”
Destination Maternity, No. 367 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, does not break out online sales in its quarterly earnings reports, but on the call Romano said e-commerce accounts for about 12% of the retailer’s Q1 sales. That suggests web sales totaled about $15 million during the first quarter. He did not specify when the new site is expected to go live or the upgrades shoppers can expect to see.
For the fiscal first quarter ended April 30, Destination Maternity reported:
- Net sales of $124.4 million, down 12.1% from $141.6 million last year.
- A comparable sales decline of 5.4% during the quarter, compared to a 1.1% decline.
- Net income of $4.0 million, up 60.0% from $2.5 million.