Women’s apparel retail chain New York & Co. Inc. is looking to other online channels, including Amazon.com Inc.’s marketplace, to help grow its digital footprint.
CEO Greg Scott told analysts on the company’s second quarter earnings call that New York & Co. will start selling on Amazon in October. It’s not the first time New York & Co., No. 217 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, has sold its products through another website. During the first quarter, the retailer began selling on flash-sale retailer zulily.com, owned by QVC parent Liberty Interactive Corp.
“We continue to seek new channels to reach a broader audience and believe the partnership with Amazon has the potential to drive new customers to the New York & Co. brand,” Scott told analysts on the company’s Q2 2016 earnings call, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. Amazon is No. 1 in the Top 500.
New York & Co. does not break out online sales in its quarterly earnings reports, however chief operating officer John Worthington told analysts the retailer posted double-digit online growth year over year.
“We continued to experience very strong growth in e-comm, which accelerated in the second quarter benefiting from a combination of enhancements we’ve made and continue to make to our web platform,” he said, though he did not spell out those changes.
Scott also told analysts on the call that New York & Co. will launch a mobile app in the third quarter, though he declined to provide specifics on the operating systems it will be available on or the features and functionalities it will offer. Data shows that mobile drives the majority of traffic to NYandCompany.com. According to data from web analytics company SimilarWeb, 72.95% of traffic to the site from May through July came from tablets and smartphones devices.
For the fiscal second quarter ended July 30, New York & Co. reports:
- Net sales of $232.8 million, down 1.2% from $235.7 million last year.
- Comparable-store sales growth of 0.3%. The retailer attributes the small growth in part to the success of its e-commerce business.
- Net income of $945,000, compared with a $146,000 loss.
For the first six months of 2016, New York & Co. reported:
- Net sales of $448.9 million, down 2.2% from $459.1 million last year.
- A net loss of $4.77 million, compared with a net loss of $4.82 million.