E-commerce was a bright spot for The Finish Line Inc. in an otherwise disappointing fiscal third quarter for the athletic shoes and apparel retailer.
For the quarter ended Nov. 26, The Finish Line reported revenue was up 3.0% to $371.7 million compared with a year ago. Finish Line’s web sales skyrocketed 108% year over year, CEO Sam Sato said on a call with investors, according to a SeekingAlpha transcript. E-commerce represented 24% order volume in the quarter, he said, without releasing e-commerce dollar figures. The company specifies dollar figures for web sales in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, which is typically released in January.
In addition to its website, FinishLine.com, the company also sells products on Macys.com after the two retailers reached an exclusive agreement in 2012 to sell athletic shoes in Finish Line-branded shops within Macy’s stores and to sell Finish Line products online at Macys.com. It is not stated in Finish Line’s earnings release whether its digital sales include its online sales from Macys.com. Finish Line did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.
Sato also noted that, year to date, digital sales represent approximately 22% of sales. Based on that and the year-to-date figures The Finish Line reported for fiscal Q3, Internet Retailer estimates the apparel retailer has web sales of $283.4 million for the first nine months of its fiscal year. That suggests digital sales increased about 53.8% from the $184.3 million The Finish Line reported for the same period a year ago.
The Finish Line, No. 136 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 1000, is benefiting from Macy’s online shoppers, executives said on the call.
“We have continued to improve the customer experience by expanding the assortment available to the Macys.com customer,” Sato said.
Additionally, recent improvements to Finish Line’s website and mobile site as well as its warehouse fulfillment capabilities helped boost web sales in Q3, executives said. Its new homepage, for example, has generated improvements in click-through and bounce rates, Sato said without providing more details. Mobile traffic increased 19% year over year and accounted for two-thirds of digital traffic, he said.
“We achieved a record-setting day for direct-to-consumer fulfillment the day after Cyber Monday, and we were above historic highs on other key metrics such as 24-hour fulfillment rate, click-to-doorbell delivery time and customer order fulfillment during the busiest online shopping period of the year,” Sato said, pointing to the retailer’s new warehouse and order management system as the catalyst for these improvements.
For the fiscal third quarter ended Nov. 26, The Finish Line reported:
- Revenue of $371.7 million, up 3.0% from $361.0 million a year ago.
- Net loss of $40.4 million compared with a $21.8 million loss a year ago.
- Year-over-year comparable-store sales increase of 0.7%
For the first three quarters of The Finish Line’s fiscal 2017, the company reported:
- Revenue of $1.29 billion, up 4.0% from $1.24 billion a year ago.
- Net loss of $8.7 million compared with net income of $17.8 million.