Tech Data Corp., an international distributor of electronics and other I.T. products, processed 70% of its orders through e-commerce in its fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2017, a spokesman said last week.
E-commerce accounted for “more than 50% of our revenue,” he added, bringing its e-commerce sales to more than $13.1 billion, or more than half of Tech Data’s $26.2 billion in net sales for the year. Tech Data defines e-commerce as sales through its e-commerce site, Shop.TechData.com, and through electronic data interchange, or EDI.
Tech Data doesn’t provide exact e-commerce sales, but it notes that electronic sales are increasing as a percentage of revenue. A year ago, it said that e-commerce accounted for 48% of revenue for the fiscal years ended in January 2016 and 2015.
Tech Data, based in Clearwater, Fla., has been taking several initiatives to improve its electronic sales, with a particular focus on increased e-commerce sales to small and mid-sized businesses. With such improvements in the past year as extending web-only pricing and live chat service along with reduced freight pricing to more than 12,000 client resellers, it has grown web revenue from small and mid-sized businesses by 24%, the company says.
With those improvements and other features on its e-commerce site, Tech Data is a finalist in this year’s IR Excellence Awards for two B2B e-commerce awards for website design and overall performance. The award winners will be announced on June 7 at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition, or IRCE, in Chicago.
For the year ended Jan. 31, 2017, Tech Data said its broadline products category, including notebooks, tablets, desktops, printers, printer supplies and components, accounted for about 48% of sales. The distributor’s other product categories cover data center technology, including network servers and storage (21% of sales); software for cloud-based applications, computer operating systems, internet security and other uses (17%); mobile phones and accessories (11%) and consumer electronics (3%).
For the fiscal fourth quarter ended Jan. 31, 2017, Tech Data reported:
- Net sales of $7.428 billion, down 0.7% from $7.484 billion;
- Gross profit of $371.03 million, up 4.6% from $354.65 million;
- Net income of $78.82 million, down 18.0% from $96.15 million.
For the full fiscal year, Tech Data reported:
- Net sales, divided among the Americas and Europe, of $26.235 billion, down 0.5% from $26.380 billion the prior year;
- Net sales in the Americas inched up 0.3% to $10.385 billion from $10.357 billion, as net sales in Europe dipped 1.1% to $15.850 billion from $16.023 billion;
- Gross profit of $1.302 billion, up 1.2% from $1.287 billion;
- Net income of $195.1 million, down 26.6% from $265.7 million the prior year.
Tech Data is No. 57 in the B2B E-Commerce 300.
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