Delivery company XPO Logistics Inc. reported an 18.4% revenue increase year over year for the first quarter of 2018. Retailers including Amazon.com Inc., No. 1 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 1000, and Wayfair Inc. (No. 13) frequently use XPO Logistics to ship over-sized items like furniture, pool tables and exercise equipment.
The delivery company attributes significant portions of its growth to demand from e-commerce companies, including a 15% revenue jump in last-mile deliveries. XPO also reported stronger demand this quarter for its reverse logistics services, which handles merchandise that consumers want to return to retailers.
In other earnings news:
- Wayfair reported first-quarter e-commerce sales of $1.39 billion, up from $940.4 million in the year-ago time period, a 47.8% increase. In the U.S., e-commerce sales increased 42.1% to $1.19 billion in the quarter up from $837.6 million a year earlier. Wayfair also announced that its day-long Way Day sale resulted in its highest sales day ever.
- Blue Apron Inc. (No. 67) is the latest online merchant to begin selling in stores. The meal-kit company, which reported a 20% year-over-year sales decrease for the first quarter, will sell meal kits at select West Coast Costco Wholesale Corp. (No 12) stores in a trial run. The four-serving kits are slightly different from its subscription boxes and can be prepared faster. The online merchant hopes introducing consumers to Blue Apron without having to sign up online first will help grow subscribers.
- Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which operates top ranked online marketplace Taobao, posted a 61% sales growth to 61.9 billion yuan ($9.7 billion) over the first quarter last year. The growth is set to continue, according to the company, thanks to its recent acquisitions of companies like food delivery startup Ele.me and transport business Cainiao.
- Under Armour Inc. (No. 33) reported a 17% year-over-year increase in direct-to-consumer sales, which includes e-commerce sales, while overall sales increased just 6% to $1.2 billion for Q1. Global direct-to-consumer sales generated 30% of global sales for the quarter, or about $360 million. Under Armour pointed to strong e-commerce growth in China as helping to drive the increases.
- Shutterfly Inc. (No. 48) posted a 4% year-over-year sales increase in the first quarter, with $199.7 million in total sales. Strong growth came from the Shutterfly Business Solutions division, which has almost doubled revenue since 2015. However, the consumer division had a 5% year-over-year decrease. Shutterfly closed its three smaller websites—Tiny Prints, Wedding Paper Divas and MyPublisher—and integrated them into the main Shutterfly consumer platform. While sales were down, Shutterfly expects that closing those sites will help improve profits, as those sites often relied on promotions to draw in new customers.