The company views its retail locations as key to online sales growth.

Apparel retailer Duluth Trading Company is revamping its e-commerce platform and order management system in a push to maximize sales.

Duluth, No. 175 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, reported direct sales during the fourth quarter ended Jan. 29 of $143.2 million, up 14.5% from $125.1 million last year. Direct sales consist of sales through made through its website and catalog.

For  fiscal 2016, Duluth reported direct sales of $309.7 million, up 16.3% from $266.3 million last year.

The retailer is in the process of replatforming its site to Demandware and upgrading its order management system to Microsoft Dynamics, chief financial officer Mark DeOrio told analysts this week on Duluth’s Q4 earnings call. Both vendors’ systems are replacing in-house technology. Demandware was acquired by Salesforce last year and rebranded as Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

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“The new system will ultimately enhance our customers’ experience, with features including an improved mobile experience, back-in-stock notifications, the ability to add multiple items to the cart with one click and dynamic content capabilities, so that we can offer a custom-tailored Duluth shopping experience,” he said, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. The new order management system and e-commerce platform are expected to be in place by the end of this summer.

At a time when some retail chains are closing store locations, Duluth finds itself in the midst of an ambitious offline expansion. The company has 17 retail locations and has plans to add up to a dozen this year.

“When we put a store in a market, we do not cannibalize direct [sales],” CEO Stephanie Pugliese told analysts. “We’re seeing that the markets that our stores are in, the customers are shopping much more frequently across all of the channels, so we’re building that omnichannel expectation and interaction with our customers.”

For the fourth quarter ended Jan. 29, Duluth Trading reported:

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  • Net sales of $174.7 million, up 24.4% from $140.4 million in fiscal Q4 2015.
  • Direct sales accounted for 82.0% of sales, compared with 89.1% last year, due to an increase in store locations and in-store sales.
  • Net income of $14.0 million, down 20.5% from $17.6 million.

For fiscal 2016, the retailer reported:

  • Net sales of $376.1 million, up 23.6% from $304.2 million in fiscal 2015.
  • Direct sales accounted for 82.3% of overall sales, compared with 87.6%.
  • Net income of $21.5 million, down 22.4% from $27.7 million.
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