Online-only British fashion merchant Boohoo.com PLC grew ecommerce revenue 47.8% for the year ending Feb. 28 to 856.9 million pounds ($1.11 billion) from 579.8 million pounds ($749.7 million) the previous year. Boohoo is No. 224 in the Internet Retailer 2019 Top 1000.
Nasty Gal, which Boohoo acquired for $20 million in 2017, grew sales 96.2% to 47.9 million pounds ($61.9 million) while the main Boohoo brand grew just 16.2% to 434.6 million pounds ($561.9 million). But the largest grower in the Boohoo portfolio was PrettyLittleThing, with a 106.5% increase in sales to 374.4 million pounds ($484.4 million). PrettyLittleThing also managed to increase its gross margin to 56.6% for the year, despite moving a distribution center in the summer.
Regionally, the U.S. and Europe outside the U.K. were the largest growth areas for Boohoo. Sales to the U.S. grew 79.3% and hit 166.3 million pounds ($215.1 million), while the rest of Europe grew 73.7% to 115.1 million pounds ($148.8 million).
In other ecommerce earnings:
- Ecommerce sales at grocery chain Albertsons Inc. (No. 200) rose 52% during the fourth quarter ended Feb. 23 compared with the same period last year, but exact figures were not disclosed. Full year ecommerce sales grew 83% in fiscal 2018. Its ecommerce sales include a mix of home delivery, curbside pickup and meal kit deliveries from Plated, which Albertsons acquired in 2017.
- Hasbro (No. 792) reported that online sales of its toys increased a single digit percent both through its own sites and on Amazon.com Inc. for the first quarter, ended March 31. But CEO Brian Goldner also said ecommerce growth was strong as retailers like Target Corp. and Walmart Inc., generated more sales now that Toys R Us (No. 166) is out of business.
- PayPal Holdings Inc., the top payment processor in the Leading Vendors to Top 1000, posted payment volume that fell short of analysts’ expectations for the first quarter ending March 31 and failed to reassure investors about plans to eventually turn a profit from its peer-to-peer payment app Venmo. For the first time, PayPal disclosed the number of people active on Venmo, or those who have made at least one transaction in the past 12 months: 40 million. The company also said Venmo processed $21 billion worth of payments in the first quarter, up from $12 billion the year before. Even still, the growth rate in payment volume across the company’s services slowed. The volume was $161 billion in the first quarter a 22% increase from the year before. The growth rate was 23% in the previous quarter and 32% a year ago.