Online now accounts for 22% of total revenue at sports apparel and footwear retail chain The Finish Line Inc.
Based on total sales of $1.844 billion in fiscal 2017 ended Feb. 25, Finish Line generated $405.8 million in online sales for the year, up 58.4% from $256.2 million in fiscal 2016, when online accounted for 14.2% of sales. Finish Line, No. 135 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, does not break out online sales in its quarterly earnings releases, however Sato told analysts that online sales increased 17% year over year during the fourth quarter.
Sato said improvements to Finish Line’s e-commerce platform helped drive online sales growth.
“We migrated to a new, more advanced commerce platform that currently serves our desktop and mobile sites,” he said, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. “The new platform comes with a number of advanced capabilities that greatly enhance the overall customer experience, such as the ability to handle increased traffic and/or processing. This is critical especially during product launches and high-volume days. It also supports our new home page, featuring a more simplified message and increased personalization, all of which results in improved click-throughs, bounce rate and conversions.”
According to Top500Guide.com, Finish Line had been using Oracle as its e-commerce platform provider. Mobile now accounts for roughly two-thirds of Finish Line’s online traffic, Sato said.
For the fiscal fourth quarter ended Feb. 25, Finish Line reported:
- Net sales of $557.5 million, down 0.4% from $559.8 million in fiscal Q4 2016.
- Comparable sales decline, including e-commerce, of 4.5%.
- Net loss of $9.5 million compared with a gain of $4.0 million.
For fiscal 2017, Finish Line reported:
- Net sales of $1.844 billion, up 2.5% from $1.799 billion in fiscal 2016.
- Comparable sales increase, including e-commerce, of 0.3%.
- Net loss of $18.2 million compared with a gain of $21.9 million.