Curated apparel retailer Stitch Fix Inc. closed out its fiscal year with revenue up 28.5%, reaching $1.58 billion in sales for the year ending Aug. 3, compared with $1.23 billion during the same period last year. For the online-only retailer’s fiscal fourth quarter, ended Aug. 3, revenue rose 35.9% to $432.7 million from $318.3 million during the same period last year. Stitch Fix is No. 64 in the Internet Retailer 2019 Top 1000.
Stitch Fix is looking at more traditional ecommerce, including purchasing outside of it normal style boxes, to keep growth at this pace, CEO Katrina Lake said on a call with investors transcribed by Seeking Alpha. Currently, Stitch Fix curates boxes for clients on a subscription or one-off basis. In the coming year, Stitch Fix plans to allow subscribers to purchase outside of the curated boxes.
The new offering, called Shop Your Looks, won’t show Stitch Fix’s entire catalog, which Lake says includes tens of millions of items. Instead, it will curate the catalog, showing clients just 30 to 40 options that will be available for one-off purchases. Stitch Fix is currently testing the program with a number of its women’s clothing customers, and it doesn’t have a firm release date on the program.
“While Shop Your Looks is still early and there remains a lot for us to learn and enhance the product, the offering leverages the personalization engine we’ve built over the last eight years and demonstrates this tremendous potential as we explore maximizing our capabilities in new and incremental ways,” Lake said on the call.
Stitch Fix remained profitable for the year, but its income shrank 17.8% to $36.9 million from $44.9 million the previous year as the company invested in debuting new lines for children’s and men’s clothing, along with new technology, according to chief financial officer Paul Yee.
In other earnings news:
- Costco Wholesale Corp. (No. 15) grew ecommerce revenue 19.8% for its fourth fiscal quarter ended Sept. 1. For its full year, ended Sept. 1, ecommerce growth hit 23.1%, the retailer reported. The warehouse club didn’t disclose exact ecommerce revenue, but its total revenue grew 7.0% to $46.45 billion from $43.41 billion for the quarter and 7.9% for the year to $149.35 billion from $138.43 billion the previous year.
- Apparel chain H&M (No. 29) grew online sales 30% during its third fiscal quarter ended Aug. 31. H&M brands, including & Other Stories, Monki and Weekday, are available in 50 markets online but will expand to 70 more markets in the coming year. The fast fashion retailer didn’t disclose exact ecommerce figures or which markets would see online expansion.